^ 



U. S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 



THE MISSISSIPPI 



AND nS FOliTY-FOUK 



NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



A DESCRIPTIVE, COMMERCIAL. AND STATISTICAL REVIEW, 
ILLUSTRATED WITH THREE DIAGRAMS. 



ALEX. D. ANDEESO]Sr, 

Atdlior of '^Mexicofrom the Material Standpoint." 



BEING PART V OF THE REPORT BY W. P. SWITZLER, CHIEF OF 

THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS, ON THE INTERNAL 

COMMFRCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1888. 



U. S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 



THE MISSISSIPPI 



AND ITS FORTY-FOUR 



NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES 



A DESCRIPTIVE, COMMERCIAL, AND STATISTICAL REVIEW, 
ILLUSTRATED WITH THREE DIAGRAMS. 



ALEX. D. ANDEESOJ^, 

Author of ^'Mexico from ihc Material Standpoini." 



BEING PART V OF THE EEPORT BY ^V. F. SWITZLER, CHIEF OF 

THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS, ON THE INTERNAL 

COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT FEINTING OFFICE. 

18 8 8, , , , , ,, 



6408 



r-,. 



•f 



JUN 25 1906 
D.ofO. 






COISTTENTS 



MAP OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND TRIBUTARIES. 



I. Historical notes. 
II. Desckiptive notes. 

Extent aa a drainage system. 
Extent as commercial highways. 
Valley States and Territories. 
Internal supplements. 
Interocean supplements. 

III. Economical features. 
Correct location. 
Connection of opposite climates. 
Construction by nature. 
Commercial value. 

Cost of repairs. 
Commercial capacity. 
Cheap transportation. 

IV. Products of the States inter- 

sected. 
Contrast with those of the United 

States. 
V. Internal commerce of the States 

intersected. 
Estimate of its value. 
How transported. 

Increasing demand for transportation. 
VI. Alluvial lands. 

Area and present condition. 
Present value. 
Future value if protected. 
Productive capacity. 



Contrast with the Netherlands. 

The question of protection. 
VII. Destruciive floods. 

Floods of 13(58 and 1871. 

Flood of 1874. 

Flood of 18ir'l. 

Flood of 1882. 

Flood of 1883. 
VIII. National features. 

National iu extent. 

National in law. 

National in benefits. 

National iu damage. 

National in politics. 

Opinions of national statesmen. 
IX. International features. 

American countries at the South — 
diagrams of first and second cen- 
tury. 

Our foreign commerce of the first 
century. 

Our foreign commerce of the second 
century. 
Appendix. 

Act creating the Commission. 

River distances. 

List of authorites. 

List of popular ]>ublications. 

List of ofiScial documents. 

3 




Heads of Navigation. 
Jefferson. Tex. 
Slate Shoals. Tex. 
Minden Laudinj;, La. 
JloutU of Ouachita, ha,. 
Camden, Aj-k. 
Baxter, Ark. 
Wallace's, Ark. 
Floyd, La. 
Westwood, La. 
Wichita, Kas. 
Searcv's, Ark. 
War Eagle, Mo. 
Jonei; Ferry, Mo. 
Perkins. Jfo. 
Grny'.'^ Ferrv, Ark. 
Witt'^bura, Mo. 
Papinvillo, 
Ft. Custer, Mon. 
Belle Butte, .Mon. 
Great Falls, Mon. 
Iowa City, la. 
Patterson's Rapids, Minn. 
St.Anthony's Falls, Minn. 



Portage City. V 
Sterline. His. 
La Sulfe, Ills 
Lafayette, Ind. 
Dresden, O. 
Pittsburg. Pa. 
Frauklin, l'*a 
Mor^antown. \^ 
Great Falls, W 
Cougar's Landi 
Grceusburg. Kj 
Waitsboro'. Ky 
Clinton, Tenn 
Knoxvllle. Tent 
Bolivar. Teun 
Stoneville. Mis 
Clarksdalo. Jli; 
Greenwood, Mi 
Hill's Place, Mir 
Ftovina, Miss 



I.-HISTORICAL NOTES. 

In the early days of European disoveries aud rivalries in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley its comprehensive river system played a prominent part 
on the stage of public affairs. The discovery of the river, in 1541, by 
De Soto and his Spanish troops was about a century later followed by 
explorations by the French under the lead of Marquette, Joliet, La 
Salle, and others, who entered the valley from the north. La Salle, dur- 
ing the years 1679-83, explored the river throughout its whole length, 
took possession of the great valley in the name of France, and called 
it Louisiana in honor of his King, Louis XIV. Then resulted grand 
schemes for developing the resources of the valley, which a French writer 
characterized as " the regions watered by the Mississippi, immense un- 
known virgin solitudes which the imagination filled with riches." One 
Crozat, in 1712, secured from the king a charter giving him almost impe- 
rial control of the commerce of the whole Mississippi Valley. There was 
at that date no European rival to dispute French domination, for the 
English of !N"ew England and the other Atlantic colonies had not ex- 
tended their settlements westward across the Alleghanies, and the 
Spanish inhabitants of New Spain or Mexico had not pushed their con- 
quest farther north than New Mexico. Crozat's trading i)rivileges cov- 
ered an area many times as large as all France, and as fertile as any on 
the face of the earth. But he was unequal to the opportunity, and, fail- 
ing in his efforts, soon surrendered the charter. 

John Law, a Scotchman, at first a gambler, and subsequently a bold, 
visionary, but brilliant financier, succeeded Crozat in the privileges of 
this grand scheme, and secured from the successor of Louis XIV a mo- 
nopoly of the trade and development of the French possessions in the 
valley. In order to carrj^ out his wild enterprise he organized a colos- 
sal stock company, called " The Western Company," but more gener- 
ally known in history as " The Mississippi Bubble." According to the 
historian Monette "it was vested with the exclusive privilege of the 
entire commerce of Louisiana and New France, and with authority to 
enforce its rights. It was authorized to monopolize the trade of all the 
colonies in the provinces, and of all the Indian tribes within the limits 
of that extensive region, even to the remotest source of every stream 
tributary in any wise to the Mississippi." So skillful and daring were 
his manipulations that he bewitched the French people with the fasci- 
nations of stock gambling. The excitement in Paris is thus described 
by Thiers : 

It was no longer the professional speculators and creditors of the Government who 
frequented the rue Qiuncampoix ; all classes of society mingled there, cherishing the 
same illusions — noblemen famous on the field of battle, distinguished in the govern- 
ment, churchmen, traders, quiet citizens, servants wliom their suddenly acquired 
fortune had tilled with the hope of rivaling their masters. * * >f 

The rue Quincampoix was called the Mississippi. * * * 

The month of December was the time of the greatest infatuation. The shares ended 
by rising to eighteen aud twenty thousand francs — thirty-six and forty times the iirst 
l)rice. 

At the price which they had attained the six hundred thousand shares represented 
a caiiital of ten or twelve billions of francs. 

5 






Tllo MlsBlsalppI and Tributml.- 



1 llli,0,-i,r..„,i,.U,nl>,.. J,.ir..r.m,.T,.,. ' •.., .v,, ,-„,|\, 

.1 iCirtll.., MhXJ'r,'n,'i"ilo"c,, 3 «v',Si!!|',V. 







6 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

But the bubble soon burst and its explosion upset the finances of the 
whole Kingdom. 

Some years later, in 1745, a French engineer named Deverges made 
a report to his Government in favor of improving the mouth of the 
Mississippi, and stated that the bars there existing were a serious in- 
jury to commerce. 

But France met with too powerful rivalry in the valley, and in 1702 
and 1763, after a supremacy of nearly a hundred j^ears, was crowded 
out by the English from the Atlantic colonies and the Spaniards from 
the southwest, the Mississippi River forming the dividing line between the 
regions thus acquired by those two nations. 

The Spanish ofQcials, for the purpose of promoting colonization, and 
to aid in establishing trading posts on the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkan- 
sas, Eed, and other rivers in the western half of the valley, granted to 
certain individuals, pioneers, and settlers, large tracts of land. They 
made little progress, however, in peopling their new territory. 

Bat whatever progress was made under the successive supremacies 
of France and Spain, the Mississippi and its navigable tributaries sup- 
plied the only highways of communication and commerce. 

In the year 1800, soon after Napoleon I became the civil ruler of 
France, he sought to add to the commercial glory of his country by re- 
acquiring the territory resting upon the Mississippi which his prede- 
cessors had parted with in 1763. 

To quote the language of a French historian : 

The cession that France made of Louisiana to Spain in 1763 had been considered in 
all our maritime and commercial cities as impolitic and injurious to the interests of 
our navigation, as well as to the French West Indies, and it was very generally wished 
that an opportunity might occur of recovering that colony. One of the first cares of 
Bonaparte was to renew with the court of Madrid a negotiation on that subject. 

He succeeded in these negotiations, and by the secret treaty of St. 
Ildefonso, in 1800, French domination was once more established over 
the great river. 

Two years later the commerce of the river had grown to large pro- 
portions. Says Marbois, of that period : "No rivers of Europe are more 
frequented than the Mississippi and tributaries." A substantially cor- 
rect idea of their patronage may be obtained from the record of the 
foreign commerce from the mouth of the Mississippi, for nearly all of 
the couuuodities collected there for export had first floated down the 
river. Of the year 1802, says Martin in his history of Louisiana: 

There sailed from the Mississippi — 



No. 



Tons. 



American vessels. 
Spanish vessels. .. 
French vessels. . . . 

Total 



158 

104 

3 



21, 383 

9,753 

105 



265 



31, 241 



The tonnage of vessels that went in ballast, not that of public armed ones, is not 
included. The latter took off masts, yards, spars, and naval stores. 

This growing commercial movement down the river of the products 
of the valley was checked by a foolish or arbitrary order issued on the 
16th of October, 1802, by the Intendant Morales, "suspending the rigbt 
of deposit" at the port of New Orleans. 

Marbois well illustrates the intense indignation at this order on the 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 7 

part of the Western people by att»ribu1iing to them the following lan- 
guage: 

The Mississippi is oars by the law of uatiire ; it belongs to ns by our numbers, and 
by the labor which we have bestowed on those spots which before our arrival were 
desert and barren. Our innumerable rivers swell it and flow with it into the Guif 
Sea. Its mouth is the only issue which nature has given to our waters, and we wish 
to use it for our vessels. No power in the world shall deprive us of this right. 

Of Morales' order James Madison, then Secretary of State, wrote to 
the official representative of the United States at the court of Spain: 

You are aware of the sensibility of our Western citizens to such an occurrence. 
This sensibility is justified by the interest they have at stake. The Mississippi to them 
is everything. It is the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and all the naviga- 
ble rivers of the Atlantic States formed into one stream. 

At this time Thomas Jefferson was President, and in view of the un- 
easiness of the Western settlers, he hastened to send to France a special 
embassador to negotiate for the purchase of Louisiana Territory. The 
opportunity was a favorable one, for France was then in danger of a 
conflict with Great Britain. The latter country had become alarmed at 
and jealous of Bonaparte's commercial conquests, and he, apprehending 
war and fearing that he could not hold Louisiana, had about determined 
to do the next best thing — dispose of it to one of England's rivals. 

Marbois, the historian of Louisiana, from whom we have above quoted, 
was chosen by Napoleon to represent France in the negotiations with 
the representative of the United States sent by Jefferson. His account 
of the cession — the consultation between Napoleon and his ministers — 
and of his remarks and motives, forms one of the most instructive and 
interesting chapters of modern history. Napoleon foreshadowed his 
action by the following remark to one of his counselors: 

To emancipate nations from the commercial tyranny of England it is necessary to 
balance her influence by a maritime power that may one day become her rival ; that 
power is the United States. The English aspire to dispose of all the riches of the 
world. I shall be useful to the whole universe if I can prevent their ruling America 
as they rule Asia. 

In a subsequent conversation with two of his ministers, on the 10th of 
April, 1803, on the subject of the proposed cession, he said, in speaking 
of England : " They shall not have the Mississippi which they covet." 

In accordance with this conclusion, on the 30th day of the same 
mouth the sale was made to the United States. When informed that 
his instructions had been carried out and the treaty consummated, he 
remarked : 

This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States, and 
I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her 
pride. 

Under the stimulating influence of American enterprise the commerce 
of the valley rapidly developed. In 1812 it entered upon a new era of 
progress by the introduction for the first time upon the waters of the 
Mississippi of steam transportation. 

The river trade then grew from year to year, until the total domes- 
tic exports of its sole outlet at the sea-board — the port of New Or- 
leans — had during the fiscal year 1855-'56 reached the value of over 
$80,000,000. Its prestige was then eclipsed by railways, the first line 
reaching the Upper Mississippi in 1854, and the second the Lower Mis- 
sissippi, at Saint Louis, in 1857. Says Poor: 

The line first opened in this State from Chicago to the Mississippi was the Chicago 
and Rock Island, completed in February, 1854. The completion of this road extended 



S THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TEIBUTARIES. 

the railway system of the country to the Mississippi, up to this time the great route 
of commerce of the interior. This work, in connection with the numerous other lines 
since opened, has almost wholly diverted this commerce from what may be termed its 
natural to artificial channels, so that no considerable portion of it now iloats down 
the river to New Orleans. 

The correctness of this assertion may be seen by reference to the sta- 
tistics of the total domestic exports of New Orleans during the year 
ending June 30, 1879. They were $63,794,000 in value, or $16,000,000 
less than in 1856, when the rivalry with railways began. 

But since 1879 the river has entered upon a new and important era. 
The successful completion of the jetties by Capt. James B. Eads in- 
augurated a new era of river commerce and regained for it some of its 
lost prestige. 

Another step of great importance to the welfare of the Mississippi 
■was taken about the same time. The control of its improvement was 
transferred by Congress to a board of skilled engineers known as the 
Mississippi River Commission. The various conflicting theories of im- 
provement which have for years past done much to defeat the grand 
consummation desired will now be adjusted in a scientific and business- 
like manner. 

Again, the rapidly-growing popular demand throughout the United 
States for more intimate commercial relations with Mexico and the sev- 
eral sister nations of Central and South America, which lie opposite the 
mouth of this great river system, is stimulating the long-neglected longi- 
tudinal trade and thereby creating a new demand for transportation on 
the longitudinal water-ways which comprise the Mississippi and its 
tributaries. 

The practical extension of the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean by 
the coming opening of an interocean canal or ship railw^ay, across the 
Isthmus of Central America or Tehuantepec, is still another commer- 
cial departure which will soon make a new demand for water trans- 
portation up and down the Mississippi Valley. 

In view of this tendency of American commerce and transportation 
a general or bird's-eye view of the Mississippi, its tributaries, supple- 
ments, and national and international features will, it is thought, be of 
value to the producers and consumers who are so deeply interested in 
the subject of cheap transportation between the great interior and the 
sea-board. 



II.-DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 

EXTENT AS A DRAINAG-E SYSTEM. 

The Mississippi aud tributaries, considered as a drainage system, ex- 
tend nearly tlie wliole length of the United States, from Canada to the 
Gulf, and across more than half its width, or from the summit of the 
Eocky Mountains to that of the Alleghanies. 

The Mississippi basin in its strict sense, comprises the following 
minor basins or subdivisions: 




Of the many divisions aud subdivisions of the river two hundred and 
forty are considered of sufficient importance to be named upon the 
river map in Walker'^ Statistical Atlas of the United States. They 
may be classified as follows : 

Red and tributaries 17 

Arkansas aud tributaries 28 

Missouri and tributaries 76 

Ohio aud tributaries 58 

Others not included in the above classification 61 

Total 240 

Probably as many more streams of minor importance are omitted 
from the map. 

EXTENT AS COMMERCIAL HIGHWAYS. 

Considered from a commercial stand-point the Mississippi and tribu- 
taries intersect or border twenty-one States and Territories, as follows : 



Alabama. 


Kansas. 


N"ebraska. 




Arkansas. 


lientncky. 


Ohio. 




Dakota Territory. 


Louisiana. 


Pennsylvania. 


» 


Illinois. 


Minnesota. 


Tennessee. 




Indiana. 


Mississippi. 


Texas. 




Indian Territory. 


Missouri. 


West Virginia. 




Iowa. 


Montana Territory. 


Wisconsin. 





Steamers can now transport freight in unbroken bulk from St. An- 
thony's Falls to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 2,1GL miles, and from 
Pittsburgh to Fort Benton, Mont., 4,333 miles. 

Lighter craft can ascend the JMissouri to Great Falls, near where that 
river leaves the EaeJvv filouutains. 

9 



10 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NA^?IGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



The outline map precediup: Chapter I has been prepared to illustrate 
the comprehensive naiare of this great river system. Its Briarean 
arms reach out in all directions and embrace nearly the whole United 
States. 

The cross-mark on each stream indicates the head of navigation, and 
in nearly every instance continuous navigation. 

The following table represents the mileage of the navigable portion 
of each above its mouth : 



Xame of river. 



Miles. 



Missouri 

Mississippi 

Ohio 

Eed 

Arkansas 

White .- 

Tennessee... 

Cumberland 

Yellowstone 

Ouachita 

Wabash 

Osage 

Minnesota 

Boeuf 

Sunflower 

Illinois 

Yazoo 

Bartholorae'w 

Black (Arkansas) 

Green 

St. Francis 

Tallabatchie 

Wisconsin 



Name of river. 



Cache (Aikansas) 

Macon 

Allegheny 

DeerCrcfk 

Monongahela 

Kentucky 

Kenawha 

Muskingum . . 

Tensas 

Iowa 

Current , 

Big Hatchie 

Bock - 

Black (Louisiana) 

Ciiippewa 

St. Croix 

Big Horn 

Clinch 

Little Red 

Big Cypress and Lake 

Big Black 

Dauchite^ ^ 



Miles. 



160 
130 
123 
116 
110 
105 
94 
94 
92 
80 
80 
75 
64 
61 
57 
55 
50 
50 
49 
44 
35 
33 



The total present navigation of these rivers, 45 in all, is 16,090 miles — 
more than four times the length of the ocean line from New York to 
Liverpool, and more than four times the distance by rail across the 
continent from New York to San Francisco. 

But it will be largely increased in the near future, when certain pro- 
posed and needed improvements are made on some of the upper streams. 
The possibilities in this respect are well illustrated by the condition of 
the Upper Mississippi. Of it the Select Committee of the United States 
Senate on Transportation Routes to the Sea-board said, in their report 
in 1874: 

The Mississippi bas for several years been successfully navigated by steam-boats 
from the falls of St. Anthony to Sauk Rapids, a distance of 78 miles. During navi- 
gable seasons small steam-boats are also run on the various reaches of the river from 
Minneapolis to Leech Lake, the entire distance being: about 675 miles. 

It is safe to assert that by imj^roving several tributaries the total 
navigation may be extended at least 1,000 miles. 

VALLEY STATES AND TERRITORIES. 

As we will have occasion, upon subsequent pages, to give statistics' 
in regard to the sixteen valley States and Territories, and also the 
twenty-one States and Territories intersected by the navigable portions 
of this great river system, it may be well to define the term valley. It 
comprises the following States and Territories : 



Arkansas. 


Kansas. 


Dakota. 


Kentucky. 


niinoia. 


Louisiana. 


Indiana. 


Minnesota. 


Indian Territory. 


Mississippi 


Iowa. 


Missouri. 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 11 

Strictly speaking', a fractional part of a few of these States migbt be 
omitted froDi, and portions of other Stat<^s included in, the term valley ; 
but as the statistics which we will have occasion to review are arranged 
by States we will not attempt to include those fractional parts, but will 
deal simply with facts relating to whole States. 

INTERNAL SUPPLEMENTS. 

Extensive and comprehensive as are the water-ways of the valley, 
they are not sufficient to satisfy the popular and commercial demand 
for inland water transportation. Many artificial extensions have 
already been constructed, and more are projected or proposed. 

The waters of the Mississippi have a present connection with the 
Great Lakes by means of a canal from the Wisconsin River to Fox 
Eiver and Lake Michigan, by a canal from the Wabash River to Lake 
Erie at Toledo, a canal from the Ohio River at Cincinnati to Lake Erie 
at Toledo, and a canal from the Ohio River at Portsmouth, Ohio, to 
Lake Erie at Cleveland — all of which canals are in turn supplemented 
by the water route via the Lakes, Erie Canal, and Hudson River to New 
York City, thereby uniting the Mississippi with the Atlantic Ocean. 

These four canals, and consequently the Mississippi, have another 
connection with the Atlantic by way of the Lakes, Welland Canal, around 
Niagara Falls, and the St. Lawrence River, for the Canadian Govern- 
ment has at a great cost completed the necessary connecting link. 

It is also proposed to uni'e the Mississippi with Lake Michigan by 
means of a canal extending from Davenport, Iowa, to Hennepin, on the 
Illinois River, and thence to Chicago. 

Again it is proposed that the United States utilize the St. Lawrence 
route by extending it to New York City by way of Lake Champlain 
and Hudson River. Such a connection has already been favorably 
reported by the Select Committee of the United States Senate on 
Transportation Routes to the Sea-board, A noticeable feature of this 
route is the connection in this way of the Mississippi Yalley with a 
New England State, Yermont. 

It is also proposed to unite the waters of the Mississippi and the 
Lakes with the Atlantic at Baltimore by means of a canal from the ex- 
isting Erie Canal, via Seneca Lake, to an uj^per tributary of the Sus- 
quehanna, and thence to Chesapeake Bay. 

Again, a direct connection of the Mississippi with the Atlantic at 
Baltimore, without use of the Lakes, is proposed by way of the Alleghany 
River from Pittsburgh, the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh Rivers, thence 
to the Juniata Yalley and the Susquehanna, and down that river to 
Chesapeake Bay, A similar connection with Philadelphia is proposed 
by the same route 'from Pittsburgh to the Susquehanna, and thence 
across to Delaware Bay. 

Located a little further south is the line of the projected and partially 
constructed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, intended to connect the Atlan- 
tic with the West by way of the Potomac, Youghiogheny, Monongahela, 
and Ohio Rivers. The line is already completed from Washington to 
CumberlavAd. It was earnestly advocated by President Washington, 
who wishe d in this way to strengthen the political and commercial ties 
between the Atlantic States and the West. 

Next is the proposed James River and Kanawha Canal, to connect 
the Atlantic with the Mississippi Yalley by way of the James, Green- 
brier, New, Kanawha, and Ohio Rivers. This route is already con- 
structed from Richmond to Buchanan, \a , a distance of 107 miles. It 



12 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

was recently recommended by the said Senate Committee on Transpor- 
tation Routes. 

Still further south it is proposed to supplement the Mississippi by 
means of a water line from the Tennessee Eiver, at Guntersville^East 
Tennessee, via Short Creek, Wills Creek, Coosa, Etowah, and Ocmulgee 
Elvers, and thence along the coast to Savannah, Ga. This route was 
also recommended by the Senate Committee on Transportation Routes. 

In the far West it is proposed to unite the waters of the Upper Mis- 
souri and Columbia Rivers, thereby connecting the Mississippi Valley 
with the Pacific Ocean. A bill to provide for a survey and report upon 
this route has recently been introduced in Congress. 

These various existing and proposed supplements may be seen by a 
reference to the map preceding Chapter I. 

INTEE-OCEAN SUPPLEMENTS. 

To consummate the new commercial movement down the river and 
direct trade relations with the foreign countries around the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans, two other great works are needed — inter-ocean transit 
across Florida on the one side and the Isthmus of Tehuautepec on the 
other. The natural relations of both enterprises to the Mississippi are 
most intimate. Each may appropriately be termed a supplement or 
extension of the river. 

The proposed Florida ship canal will shorten the distance between 
New Orleans and New York 571 statute miles each way, or 1,142 on the 
Tound trip. It will shorten the voyage between New Orleans and Liv- 
erpool 473 statute miles each way, or 946 on the round trip. 

The great saving of distance via this route, together with its ad- 
vantages in point of safety over the present hazardous route around 
the southern extremity of Florida, will render it a material aid to the 
Mississippi in preventing the acquisition by Canada of the grain trans- 
portation business between the valley and Liverpool. 

On the 18th of December, 1880, Mexico entered into a contract with 
Capt. James B. Eads for the construction of a ship-railway across the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

This inter ocean line, when completed, will give the Gulf of Mexico 
and its surroundings their first direct commercial outlet to the Pacific 
Ocean and its surrounding countries, with the following saving of dis- 
tances over the existing railway at Panama and the existing steam-ship 
route around Cape Horn : 

statute miles. 

Montli of tlie Mississippi to Hong-Kong : 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) 10, 092 

Via Isthmus of Panama (great circle) 11, 912 

Saving via Tehuantepec (one way) 1, 820 

Saving via Tehauutepec (round trip) 3, C40 

Mouth of the Mississippi to Hong-Kong: 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) 10, 092 

Via Cape Horn (great circle) 20, 594 

Saving via Tehuantepec (one way) 10, 502 

Saving via Tehtiantepec (round trip) 21, 004 

Mouth of the Mississippi to Yokohama: 

Via Isthmus of Tehuautepec (great circle) 8, 549 

Via Isthmus of Panama (great circle) 10, 369 

Saving via Tehuautepec (one way) 1, (^20 

Saving via Tehuantepec (round trip) 3,640 

Mouth of the Mississippi to Yoliohama: 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) 8, 549 

Via Caiie Horn (great circle) 20, 018 

Saving via TehuanteiDec (one way) 11,469 

Saving via Tehuantepec (round trip) 22,938 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 13 

Statute milea. 

Month of the Mississippi to Syduey, Australia: 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) 9, 188 

Via Isthmus of Panama (great circle) 10, 341 

Saving via Tehuantepec (one way) 1, 153 

Saving via Tehuantepec (round trip) 2,306 

Month of the Mississippi to Sydney, Australia : 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec (great circle) 9, 188 

Via Cape Horn (great circle) • 14,975 

Saving via Tehuantepec (oue way) .">, 787 

Saving via Tehuantepec (round trip) 11, 574 

Month of the Mississippi to San Francisco : 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec 3, 466 

Via Isthmus of Panama ^. 5, 302 

Saving via Tehuantepec (one way) 1, 836 

Saving via Tehuantepec (round trip) 3,672 

Month of the Mississippi to San Francisco : 

Via Isthmus of Tehuantepec 3, 466 

Via Cape Horn 15,908 

Saving via Tehuantepec (one way) 12, 442 

Saving via Tehuantepec (round trip) 24,884 



III.-ECONOMICAL FEATURES. 

CORRECT LOCATION. 

Eailroads and other highways intended for the accommodation of com 
merce fall far short of success when unwisely located. Too mauy have 
violated the laws of political economy in this respect, and have proved 
ruinous to their stockholders and almost useless to the public. A nation 
may sometimes, for political or military purposes, construct a road 
through a desert or mountainous and unproductive region; but neces- 
sity, instead of economy, is the theory on which it acts. Commerce is 
governed by other considerations. It seeks that which is both useful 
and profitable. 

The IViississippi and tributaries intersect the most fertile valley of the 
whole world — the productive center of this continent. It supplies trans- 
l^ortation where most needed, and is, therefore, most wisely and eco- 
nomically located. 

CONNECTION OF OPPOSITE CLIMATES. 

Eailways in the past have given undue attention to commercial ex- 
changes along parallels of latitude, between similar climates, with sim- 
ilar products and characteristics. The tendency of the whole Mississippi 
Eiver system is the other way, from north to south, one climate to an- 
other, regions which are the reverse and complement of each other in 
supply and demand. In this respect also it observes a fundamental 
law of trade. 

CONSTRUCTION BY NATURE. 

The next important consideration in a transportation line is the cost 
of construction. Eailway stockholders expect dividends, and if their 
roads be extravagantly built the burden is soon shifted to the shoul- 
ders of the producer and consumer along the way in the shape of ex- 
cessive rates. Even if rightly located and cheaply built, railroads 
represent enormous capital when contrasted with rivers made by nature 
at no expense to the people. 

The 16,0li0 miles of navigable water-ways which constitute the com- 
mercial part of the Mississippi Eiver system were constructed and pre- 
sented by nature at no cost to the people. But they are just as valuable 
as if artificially built. They are the nation's property, and should, like 
its military roads, its custom-houses, post-offices, and other property, be 
kept in repair. Congress is the board of management for this purpose, 
and should, in guarding the people's transportation property, exercise 
the same skill and observe the same laws of economy as railway directors 
who are chosen to manage the railway lines owned by individual stock- 
holders. 

14 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 15 

COMMERCIAL VALUE. 

There were, during tbe census year 1880, 87,782 miles of railway in 
operatiou in the United States, built at a total cost, for construction, 
of $4,112,367,176, or an average of $46,848 per mile. 

Now, iu view of the facts and figures showing the superior and 
economical location of the Mississippi and its navigable tributaries, 
their wonderful commercial capacity, their facilities for cheap transpor- 
tation, the enormous annual products of the twenty-one States and 
Territories intersected, and the colossal proportions of their internal 
commerce, it may not be unreasonable to estimate their actual commer- 
cial value as follows: 

The Lower Mississippi, from Saint Louis to the Gulf, at $468,480 per 
mile, or ten times the average cost per mile of the railways of the 
United States. 

The Upper Mississippi, from Saint Louis to St. Anthony's Falls, at 
$327,936 i)er mile, or seven times that of the average railway. 

The Ohio, from its mouth to Pittsburgh, the Missouri, from its mouth 
to Sioux City, the Red Eiver, from its mouth to Shreveport, and the 
Cumberland, from its mouth to Nashville, at $234,240 per mile, or five 
times that of the average railway. 

The remaining navigable tributaries of the Mississippi at $46,848 per 
mile, or the same as that of the average railway. 

We have then a total valuation as follows: 

The Lower Mississippi, from Saint Lonis to the Gulf (1,352 miles) $633,387,664 

The Upper Mississippi, from Saint Louis to St. Anthony's Falls (809 

miles) 265,300,224 

The Ohio, from its mouth to Pittsburgh (1,021 miles) 239,159,040 

The Missouri, from its mouth to Sioux City (1,019 miles) 238,690,560 

The Red, from its mouth to Shreveport (456 miles) 106,813,440 

The Cumberland, from its mouth to Nashville (209 miles) 48,956,160 

The remaining navigable tributaries of the Mississippi (10,774 miles).. 522,542,592 

Total value 2,054,849,680 

In other words, the people of the United States have iu the Missis- 
sippi and its forty-four navigable tributaries, highways of commerce 
and cheap transportation to the seaboard to the enormous value of 
$2,000,000,000. This property was a present from nature. The ques- 
tion naturally arises, will they manage it on business jyrinciples and 
keep it in an adequate state of repairs ? 

COST OF REPAIRS. 

The total sum expended by the General Government from March 4, 
1789, to June 30, 1886 (a period of ninety-seven years), iu the improve- 
ment of the Mississippi and its forty-four navigable tributaries, was in 
round numbers about $51,000,000. 



16 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



The expenditures by rivers, compiled and rearranged froQi tbe official 
reports of tbe Treasury Department, are as follows : 



Name. Amount. 


Kame. 


Amount. 


Mississippi S29. 785. 666 


Boeuf 


$15,000 
7 000 


Ohio 


.5,048,348 
2, 866, 965 




Missouri 


Current 


7 000 




2, 816, 4.56 

1,749,000 

1,443,793 

1,161, 0(!0 

722, 479 

709, 998 

4»7, 500 

420, 076 

303, GOO 

290, 000 

189, 994 

143. 000 

142, 000 

128, 000 

117,500 

110, 000 

100, 000 

94, 000 

75,000 

51, 000 

50, 000 

42, 000 

27, 000 

25, 000 

24, 000 

21,000 

19, 000 

18,000 


Big Black (Mississippi) 

Rock 


5 000 




934 


Eed 






Wisconsin (see Miscellaneous). 
Cache 










Macon 




"Wabash 


Deer Creek 






Iowa (see Miscellaneous). 

Biir Hoi n 




MonoDgahela 






Little Eed 












Miscellaneouii. 




White . 






2 579 522 




Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and 






2, 484, 937 
631 500 






Cypress aud Lak« 


Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkan- 
sas 




St. Croix 


265 000 


Black (Arkaii5!»s) 


Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio 

White and St. Francis 


222 923 


Allegheny 


132, 000 
98, 541 






St. Fraacia , 


Lower Mississippi and tributaries. 

White, Black, and Little Eed 

White, Black, and St. Francis 


11 855 




10 000 


Tall ah itchie , 


1, 6''3 


Clincli „ 


999 


Big 'Satohio 


Total 






55, 654, 209 







k slight dednctioa should be made from the grand total, as Fox 
K/ver, included in the list, is not a tributary of the Mississippi ; but as 
its appropriation is combined with that of the Wisconsin, which is a 
tributary, the two can not be separated. Another slight deduction, 
probably about $3,000,000, should be made from the total for unex- 
pended balances carried to the surplus fund, but this deduction can not 
be given by rivers. Estimating the two deductions at $4,000,000, we 
have as a net total of expenditures for the improvement of the Missis- 
sippi and its forty-four navigable tributaries 151,654,209. This is at the 
rate of $532,515 per year during the ninety- seven years since the begin- 
ning of the Government for the improvement of forty-five rivers, navi- 
gable to the extent of 16,090 miles, or at the rate of $33 per mile per 
year. 

As the commercial value of these forty-five rivers is, on a previous 
page, estimated at $2,054,849,680, the total cost of repairs during the 
ninety-seven years was but 2^ per cent, of their value, or at the rate of 
one-fortieth of 1 per cent, of their value per year. 

In brief, the forty-five rivers cost nothing, being a present from na-' 
ture, and their repairs next to nothing. 

COMMERCIAL CAPACITY. 

The enormous capacity of the Mississippi and its principal tributaries 
for the transportation of bulky agricultuml, forestry, and mineral prod- 
ucts of the States intersected was adnairably illustrated by the follow- 
ing paragraph which appeared in the Western papers in 1879. Itjs a 
volume in itself, and worthy of frequent repetition to impress upon the 
minds of the producers of this country the great commercial importance 
of the water-ways with which they have been so liberally endowed by 
nature : 

The towboat Josh Williams is on lier way to New Orleans with a tow of thirty-twO 
barges, coutaiuiug 600,000 bushels (76 pounds to the bushel) of coal, exclusive of her 
own fuel, being the largest tow ever taken to New Orleans or anywhere else in the 
world. Her freight bill, at 3 cents a bushel, amounts to $18,000. 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND I'l S NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



17 



It would take 1,800 cars of 333 bushels to the car (wliich is au overload for a car) 
to transport this amount of coal. 

At f 10 per tou, or $100 per car, which would be a fair price for the distance by rail, 
the freight bill would amount to $180,000, or $16"i,000 more by rail than by river. 

The tow will be taken from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in fourteen or fifteen days. 

It would require one hundred trains, of eighteen cars to the train, to transport thia 
one tow of 600,000 bushels of coal, and even if it made the usual speed of fast freight 
lines it would take one whole summer to put it through by rail. 

This statement shows the wonderful superiority of this river over rail facilities. 

CHEAP TRANSPORTATION. 

The question of cheap transportation has during late years assumed 
great imiwrtance, for the reason that it affects both internal and for- 
eign commerce and the welfare of both the producer and consumer. 
When the rates are too high, production is checked. It has been no 
unusual thing to hear of farmers in the West burning or otherwise de- 
stroying their grain because it was unprofitable to ship it abroad. The 
object of commercial exchanges is profit, and where that does not exist 
internal commerce suffers. So with foreign exchanges. If England 
and France and other purchasers of our grain and provisions can buy 
at cheaper rates elsewhere they are sure to do so. The competition 
among commercial nations is so great that a trifling overcharge in rates 
of transportation may cost the loss of an important market. 

The rivals of the IJnited States will, if they can supply Liverpool at 
cheaper rates, control that market. The subject was well illustrated in 
a public letter by ex-Governor Horatio Seymour in the fall of 1878, who 
has carefully studied the effect of the Erie Canal on freight rates. We 
quote the following from that letter : 

Those who wish to learn the causes of our present exports must compare the cost 
of carrying this season with that of other years. It has been 1.5 cents for a bushel of 
wheat by canal from Buffalo to New York. This season at times it has been less than 
fi cents. The cost from Chicago to New York has been 25 cents for a bushel. In the 
past summer it has been taken for less than 7 cents. The policy of taking charges 
off from commerce is not only shown upon water routes; it brought down railroad 
charges. In 1873 the Central road charged for taking wheat from Buffalo to New 
York 21 cents per bushel in the winter and 18 cents in the summer months. This 
year the road has taken it for 5 cents. 

The effect of water transportation is direct and indirect. In other 
words, it furnishes the shipper with cheap rates, and also, by its com- 
petitive influence, forces railways to lessen the charges. 

The rates of transportation of grain from the center of the Mississippi 
Valley at Saint Louis to the sea-board at New Orleans by river, contrasted 
with the rates from Saint Louis to New York by rail, were, according to 
the annual reports of the Saint Louis Merchants' Exchange, as follows 
during the past ten years : 





Average rate 


Average rate 






on V heat, 


on gram 


Average rate 




in bulk, 


in sacks, on 


on gram 


Year. 


in barges, 


steam-boat. 


by rail to 


bv river, to 


bv river, 


New York, 




New Or- 


to New Or- 


per 100 




leans, per 


leans, per 


pounds. 




bushel. 


100 pounds. 






Cents. 


Cents. 


Cents. 


1877 


8i 


21 


41 


1878 - 


71 


18 


38 


1879 ^. 


7| 


33i 
42 


1880 


8J 


19 


1881 


6 

6,% 


20 
20 


83 


1882 


29i 
33 


1883 


54 
6S 


171 
14 


1884 


26 


1885 


6g 
6i 


15 


22f 
29 


1886 


16 






6408 2 









18 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TEIBUT ARIES. 

It will be observed that the rate on graiu bv river to the sea-board at 
New Orleans duriug 1886 was 13 cents less per hundred pounds than by 
rail to the sea board at New York. To appreciate the magnitude of this 
difference when applied to the grain crop of the twenty-one States and 
Territories intersected by the Mississippi and its navigable tributaries, 
supposing half of the annual crop had to be transported from Saint 
Louis to the sea-board, let us glance at a few statistics. 

Their total grain crop during the year 1885 was 2,529,781.000 bushels, 
as may be seen by reference to another page. A saving of 7 cents per 
bushel on half of this crop would amount to $88,542,335. 

But grain is only one item of the agricultural freights of the valley 
which can best be transported by water. If to the above sum of |88,- 
542,335 were added the possible annual saving by river transportation 
on the hay, coal, potatoes, cotton, tobacco, and other bulky products of 
the valley the total would reach immense proportions. 

We know of no better conclusion to draw from the above facts and 
figures than that made by the Select Committee of the United States 
Senate, in 1874, on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, after a full 
and exhaustive review of that important subject, viz : 

The above facts and conclusions, together with the remarkable physical adaptation, 
of our country for cheap and ample water communication, point unerringly to the 
imijrovement of our great natural water-ways and their connection by canals, or by 
short freight railway portages, under control of the Government, as the obvious and 
certain solutiou of the problem of cheap transportation. 

The importance of this subject may be further illustrated by a glance 
at the total freight earnings of the railroads of the United States dur- 
ing a period of onl^^ six years. They were as follows : 

1881 .,... .■ $351,968,477 

1882 506,367,247 

1883 549,756,695 

18-^4 502,869,910 

1885 519,690,992 

Total 2,630,653,321 

In other words, the freight charges by the railways of the United 
States amount in five years to a sum greater than the whole national 
debt. 

We do not make these comparisons for thepurpose of reflecting upon 
railways, but to reach some statistical conclusions in regard to the value 
and importance of the rivers of the valley. In this broad, fertile, and 
but partially-developed country there is room enough for both classes 
of highways. Eailways are needed, not only those now in operation, 
but many more, and rivers are needed as freight regulators. 

In brief, the Mississippi is the balance-wheel which is destined to 
regulate the railway freight movements of the great interior of the 
nation. This idea was well expressed in the following editorial of the 
Springfield Eepublican of December 13, 1880: 

The Mississippi Eiver is certain in time to play a part in regulating transcoD-ti- 
Tiental freight transportation not unlike that of the Erie Canal in relation to the 
IsTew York railroads. The block in through freight on all the East and West roads 
threatened last week to set back to Saint Louis, but it was relieved there by starting 
the corn and wheat down the river, from 300 to 400 cars at a time being loaded on 
barges. As trade develops aud navigation improves it is plain this must become 
more and more common, aud through rail rates will some day be fixed by the com- 
petition of the Mississippi, on which navigation is never closed. 



IV.-PRODUCTS OF STATES INTERSECfED. 

CONTRAST WITH THOSE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The transcendent commercial importance of the water-ways of the 
Mississippi and its forty-four navigable tributaries can best be appre- 
ciated by a glance at the statistics of the great staple products of the 
twenty-one States and Territories intersected or bordered by this system. 

Their products, contrasted with those of the whole United States, 
during the last census year (1880) were as follows: 

Ninety eight per cent, of the sugar. 

Mnety-four per cent, of the coal. 

Eighty-nine per cent, of the corn. 

Eighty-one per cent, of the pig-iron. 

Seventy-six per cent, of the oats. 

Seventy -four per cent, of the wheat. 

Sixty-eight per cent, of the cotton. 

Sixty six per cent, of the tobacco. 

Sixty per cent, of the hay. 

Fifty-seven per cent, of the forest products. 

Fifty-six per cent, of the wool. 

Eighty-two per cent, of the swine. 

Seventy-seven per cent, of the mules. 

Seventy-four per cent, of the horses. 

Seventy- three per cent, of the cattle. 

Their total grain product during the year 1885 was as follows: 

Busliels. 

Indian com 1,729,924.000 

Oats 514,100,000 

Wheat 241,722,000 

Barley 22,916,000 

Kye 15,464,000 

Buckwheat - 5,655,000 

Total...-. 2,529,781,000 

In other words, the States and Territories tapped by the navigable 
portions of the Mississippi Eiver system produced grain to the extent 
of 45 bushels for every man, woman, and child in the United States, 
estimating the population that year at 55,000,000 souls. They are, then, 
not only the granary of the nation, but of the world. 

19 



V. -INTERNAL COMMERCE OF THE STATES INTERSECTED, 

ESTIMATE OF ITS VALUE. 

It is, of course, difficult to estimate the value of the internal commerce 
of the twenty-one States and Territories under consideration, for, un- 
like foreign commerce, it is not subject to the laws and regulations 
which necessitate a record of transactions with foreign countries. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, in his first annual report on 
the internal commerce of the United States, published in 1877, esti- 
mated its value to be twenty-five times that of our total foreign com- 
merce. His reasons for the estimate were as follows: 

The relative importance of internal and of foreign commerce may be inferred from 
the following comparative statements: 

Estimated value of shipping (American and foreign) employed in our 

foreign trade $200,000,000 

Estimated value of the railroads of the United States 4, 600, 000, 000 

The value of the commodities embraced in our foreign commerce and the estimated 
value of commodities transported on railroads are as follows: 

Value of imports and exports (foreign commerce) $1, l2l, 634, 277 

Estimated value of commodities transported on rail (internal com- 
merce) 18,000,000,000 

It appears from these estimates that the value of the railroa,ds of the country is 
about twenty-three times the value of the shipping engaged in our foreign trade, and 
that the value of our internal commerce on railroads is about sixteen times the value 
of our foreign commerce. 

It is to be observed that these comparative statements embrace the value of our 
entire foreign commerce, whereas the data in regard to internal commerce relate only 
to railroads. 

If it were possible to ascertain the value of the commerce between the different 
sections of the country, on the ocean and gulf, and on the lakes, rivers, and other 
avenues of transportation, we should probably iiud that the total value of our in- 
ternal commerce is at least twenty-five times greater than the value of our foreign 
commerce. 

If we accept this estimate as correct, we must multiply the present 
foreign commerce of the United States (which during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1886, was $1,314,960,966 in value) by twenty-five to 
reach the present total of our internal commerce. The result is the 
enormous sum of $32,874,024,150, or more than double the value of the 
foreign commerce of the whole world. 

The question now arises. What portion of this internal trade be- 
longs to the twenty-one States and Territories tapped by the navigable 
portions of the Mississippi and tributaries ? In view of the facts and 
figures above given in regard to their percentage of staple products, it 
is doubtless fair to assume that their internal trade is at least half that 
of the United States. The logical conclusion, then, from the above 
premises is that the internal commerce of the twenty-one States and 
Territories is upward of $16,000,000,000 in. value> or greater than the 
foreign commerce of all nations combined* 
20 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



21 



But suppose this estimate by the Chief of the Bureau is too high (as 
a discussion of the subject iu a subsequent report seems to indicate), 
and that it be reduced one-half, even then the internal commerce of the 
twenty-one States and Territories would be as great as the foreign com- 
merce of Great Britain, France, and Germany combined. 

HOW TRANSPORTED. 

In former days, before the era of railways, the products of the val- 
ley were carried almost entirely by river. It was also the principal 
passenger line. The small boats of the early Spanish and French ex- 
plorers floated upon its waters. The early emigration from the East to 
the West relied upon the waters of the Ohio. The trading posts of the 
valley were established upon the banks of the various navigable 
streams, and with the, growth of the towns, villages, and cities the 
traflSc upon the Mississippi and tributaries grew to large proportions. 
But how is it to-day ? 

Perhaps no fairer illustration can be found than the receipts and 
shipments of freight of Saint Louis, situated as it is in the center of 
this great river system. 

During the past ten years the total receipts and shipments of this 
commercial center were, in tons, as follows : 





Tear. 


By River. 


By Eail. 


1877 


Tons. 
1, 242, 155 
1, 329, 375 
1, 306, 115 
1,931,385 
1,736,435 
1, 571, 985 
1, 306, 565 
1, 035, 200 
1, 013, 240 
1, 132, 100 


Tons. 
5 137 238 


1878 


5, 655, 866 
6 948 794 


1879 


1880 


8 85"^ 204 


1881 


10, 213, 487 
10,649,782 
10,408,939 
10 052 ''06 


1882 


1883 


1884 


1885 


10 301 301 


1886 


10, 728, 110 






Total 


13, 664, 615 


88, 957, 927 





In brief, ten years ago 19.4 per cent, of annual freights of Saint 
Louis were transported by river and 80.6 per cent, by rail; but during 
the last year only 9^ per cent, were transported by river. 

INCREASING DEMAND FOR TRANSPORTATION. 

The importance of keeping the inland water lines in good repair may 
be seen from the past demand of the valley for transportation routes 
to the sea-board, but still more clearly from an examination of its prob- 
able future growth and development. In business matters we can 
safely judge the future by the past. What material progress, then, do 
we find, and what may we expect iu the future ? 

The statistics of corn grown in the twenty-one States and Territories 
intersected by the Mississippi and tributaries during the years 1860 
and 1885 were as follows: 

Bushels. 

I860 651,514,436 

1885 1,72U,924,000 

This was an increase of 165 per cent, in twenty-five years. 



22 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



The growing demand for transportation facilities may be further illus- 
trated by reference to the statistics of improved lauds at the time of the 
census of 1870 and 1880. 



state. 


Total area. 


Improved 
land, 1870. 


Improved 
land, 1880. 




Acres. 

33, 406, 720 
35, 462, 400 
21, 637, 760 
35, 228. 800 

52, 043, 520 
24,115,200 
26,461,440 

53, 459, 840 
30, 179, 840 
41, 824,' 000 
48, 636, 800 
25, 576, 960 
29, 184, 000 

34, 511, 360 
98, 596, 480 
44,154,210 


Acres. 
1,859,821 
19, 329, 952 
10, 104,270 
9, 396, 467 
1, 971, 003 
8,103,850 
2„ 045, 640 
2, 322, 102 

4, 209, 146 
9,130,615 

647,031 
14, 469, 133 
6, 843, 278 

5, 899, 343 

42, 645 


Acres. 
3, 595, 603 




26,215,154 




13, 933, 738 




19, 866, 541 




10, 739, 568 




10, 731, 682 




2, 739, 972 




7, 246, 693 




5,216,937 




16, 745, 031 


Nebraska 

Ohio 


5, 504, 702 
18, 081, 091 




8, 496, 556 




9, 162, 528 




1,150,413 












Total 


632, 479, 360 


96, 374, 305 


159, 326, 208 







The contrast shows that in 1870 only 15 per cent, of the area of these 
great and productive States and Territories was then improved, and 
that 85 per cent, remained for development, and that in 1880 but 25 per 
cent,, or one-fourth part, was improved. 

The coal-fields of the Valley States furnish still more striking evidence 
to the same effect. Their product and its increase in fifteen years were 
as follows : 

Tons. 

1870 - 6,793,098 

1885 32,118,208 

Increase 25, 325, 110 

Or more than 370 per cent. 

That increase is trifling compared with what we may expect in the 
near future, for the coal deposits of these States are the most extensive 
that exist in the whole country, yet the least developed. 

These facts and figures ciearly indicate that we may expect a regu- 
larly increasing demand for cheap, convenient, and untrammeled trans- 
portation from the valley to the seaboard until its fertile fields are ad- 
equately populated and developed. 

Unless this reasonable demand is supplied by a thorough and com- 
prehensive improvement of the channels of the Mississippi and its 
confluents, the natural development of the great interior States will fall 
far short of their possibilities, and the consumers of the East, as well as 
the producers of the West, will suffer from the neglect. 



VI -ALLUVIAL LANDS. 

AREA AND PRESENT CONDITION. 

The area of the alluvial lands along the Lower Mississippi and tribu- 
taries is 41,193 square miles, being as large as the combiued areas of Xew 
Hara])shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Ehode Islaud, Oouuecticut, and 
Kew Jersey. It is three-fourths the extent of England, which contains 
52,922 square miles, and more than eighteen times larger than Holland, 
which is a rich country formed by the protection of alluvial lands along 
certain rivers and the Zuyder Zee. This area of the Mississippi Delta, 
reduced to acres, is 26,363,520. According to those most familiar with 
the subject, and who are competent judges, all but 10 per cent, of these 
lands are susceptible of cultivation and of unsurpassed fertility. We 
have, then, 23,727,168 acres to be protected, their increased values to be 
added to the general wealth and their products to help swell the sum 
total of the national industries. 

What is their present condition? We find that in 1870 but 1,969,238 
acres, or less than 8 per cent, of their area, Avas under cultivation. 

Why are these rich and productive lands thus neglected? Chiefly, if 
not solely, because of the periodical destruction of crops, buildings, and 
danger to health and even life from the overflow of the river. 

PRESENT VALUE. 

The value of the above 1,969,238 acres, improved in 1870, was, accord- 
ing to an estimate by the Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, $80,431,221, 
or $40.84 per acre. The remaining 21,757,930 acres which are nniiu- 
proved, but susceptible of cultivation, had but trifling values, say from 
10 cents to $2 per acre. Mr. Ellis said, in his report to the House of 
Eepresentatives in 1876: " Millions of acres have been sold for taxes; 
others, after advertisement, have failed to bring anything whatever." 
It is believed $1.25 was in 1876 a fair estimate of the value per acre of 
those unimproved lands. We reach, then, the following conclusion, 
supposing the values and areas cultivated have not materially changed: 

Value of improved lands $80,431,221 

Value of uuimproved lands 27, 197, 612 

Total value 107,628,833 

FUTURE VALUE IF PROTECTED. 

E"ow, let us consider their possibilities. The totals resulting are so 
large that only by comparison can we appreciate the fairness of the 
estimate. 

Probably no one will dispute the assertion that the Delta of the Mis- 
sissippi is as productive as the Delta of the Rhine in the IsTetherlands, 
and if the statistics of the value of the protected lands in Holland and 

23 



24 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

other provinces of the Netherlands were accessible, it would be an in- 
teresting and fair comparisoii, because of the similarity existing be- 
tween these countries. But as they are not within reach, we will take 
for a comparison the farm lands of New Jersey. We select that State, 
because its farm lands have a very high value per acre, and for the 
further reason that no lands in the country are too fertile and valuable 
to be contrasted with the possibilities of the Mississippi Delta. 

According to the United States census of 1880 the average value per 
acre of the 2,096,297 acres of improved lands in New Jersey, including 
farms, fences, and buildings, was $91 per acre.. 

The alluvial lands of the Mississippi, if protected and improved, 
would, at that rate per acre, be worth $2,399,080,320. As their present 
value is but $107,628,833, the increase would be more than $2,000,000,000. 

PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY. 

It certainly is not an overestimate of the productive capacity of the 
alluvia] lands to say they will yield on an average as much as the farm 
lands of New Jersey. Such a comparison doubtless underestimates 
their capacity. The value per acre of the products of the improved lands 
of said State was, in 1880, $14.14. At that yield per acre the alluvial 
lands would annually produce to the value of $372,780,172. This is a 
moderate estimate, as may be seen from the following calculation, made 
from a different basis: According to the official report of 1877, of the 
United States Commissioner of Agriculture, it takes, in the cotton- 
producing States of this country, an average of 2.63 acres to produce 
one bale of cotton. No one familiar with the alluvial lands will dispute 
their wonderful capacity for cotton-growing. At the same rate, 2.63 
acres to the bale, the total area would i)roduce 9,021,736 bales. Re- 
ducing that to pounds, at 440 pounds to the bale, we have a total of 
3,969,563,840 pounds. At 11 cents per pound the total value of their 
annual crop would be $436,652,022. It is evidently nearer the truth to 
say that the overflowed lands, if protected and cultivated as carefully 
as the farm lands of New Jersey, would produce on an average at least 
one bale to every acre. It is an assertion which any planter familiar 
with the wonderful fertility, depth, and inexhaustibility of the alluvial 
soil will readily indorse. At that rate the Delta of the Mississippi would 
produce each year 23,727,168 bales, worth, at 440 pounds to the bale 
and at 11 cents per pound, $1,148,394,931. . 

CONTRASTS WITH THE NETHERLANDS. 

The history of the protection and development of the Netherlands 
(low countries), an exact parallel in formation to the alluvial lands of 
the Mississippi Valley, proves very clearly that we have not overesti- 
mated the importance of the subject. 

The United Kingdom of the Netherlands contains but 12,680 square 
miles, and North and South Holland, two of the eleven subdivisions of 
the same, but 2,209 square miles. The whole of the Netherlands is 
made-landj having been formed by protection from the overflow of the 
Lower Rhine, the Maas, the Scheldt and other rivers, 90 lakes, and the 
Zuyder Zee. The total cost of their protection by dikes, embankments, 
and other works was $1,500,000,000. The annual cost of guarding, 
protecting, and repairing is stated to be from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000. 
Probably that country, in proportion to its population, is the wealthiest 
nation upon the face of the earth. 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 25 

An elaborate review of the same says: 

The country is eveiywhere well peopled, and no popniatiou in the world exhibits 
a more uniform appearance of wealth, comfort, and contentment. 

Hollaud uot only has capital enough for home use, but the Dutch of 
Amsterdam are capitalists who have a large surplus to lend for public 
improvements and large enterprises in other nations. Yet all the 
wealth q^ this rich and commercially powerful kiugdom was accumu- 
lated in an alluvial country having au area less than one-third that of 
the alluvial lands along the Lower Mississippi. 

We will protit by their example if we protect our own lands from 
overflow — lands which are equally productive aud far more easily and 
cheaply protected. The Dutch are, as a nation, economical and con- 
servative. We, who claim to be progressive, should display equal en- 
terprise in adding to the sum total of our national wealth, particularly 
when it cau be done incidentally to a more important work — the im- 
provement of navigation. 

THE QUESTION OF PROTECTION. 

If incidentally to the improvement of navigation the rich alluvial 
lands of the Lower Mississippi Valley should be protected from de- 
structive floods, and almost fabulous additions made to the taxable 
wealth of the country, millions of citizens would be benefited and none 
injured. But before stating the facts and figures it may be well to 
notice some of the popular misunderstandings of this important subject. 

The Mississippi Eiver Commission, who now have in charge the work 
of improvement, have repeatedly, since their appointment, been termed 
by the press the " Levee Commission," thereby conveying to the mind 
of the public the erroneous impression that their chief duty was to 
serve the interest of one section of the valley and build levees. What 
are the facts? The act creating the Commission is entitled, "An act 
to provide for the appointment of a ' Mississippi Eiver Commission,' 
for the improvement of said river from the head of the passes, near its 
mouth, to its head waters," which head waters are in the State of Min- 
nesota, near the northern boundary of the United States. Section 4 of 
the act prescribes their duty as follows : 

It shall be the duty of said Commission to take into consideration and mature such 
plan or plans as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel, aud pro- 
tect the banks of the Mississippi River ; improve and give safety and ease to the navi- 
gation thereof] prevent destructive floods; promote and facilitate commerce, trade, 
aud the postal service. 

The Commission shall report in full upon the practicability, feasibility, and prob- 
able cost of the various plans known as the jetty system, the levee system, and the 
outlet system, as well as upon such others as they deem necessary. 

This correction is important, for such misapprehension tends to throw 
discredit upon a great national work. 

Another source of misunderstanding and opposition has been the un- 
necessary use of the word "reclamation" in many bills which have in 
the past been introduced in Congress upon the subject of river improve- 
ment. That word was not used in the act creating the Commission, uor 
is it one of their duties to do farming for individuals at Goverument 
expense. An emphatic disclaimer of such a purpose was made in the 
House of Eepresentatives by the chairman of the Committee on the 
Mississippi, Hon. E. W. Eobertson, in a speech advocating the appoint- 
ment of a commission. He said of the bill then pending : 

It contemplates the improvement of the chief avenue of transportation of a great 
commercial nation. It also seeks to protect from floods and pestilence over 26,000,000 



26 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TEIBUTAEIES. 

acres of the most fertile and productive lands upon the face of the earth. It does 
not, as is so often alleged, aim at the reclamation of those lands, or seek to perform 
work which properly belongs to the individual citizen. The word "reclamation" is 
not used in the bill. It is well that we understand the distinction at the outset of 
this discussion, for the wrong nse and confusion of terms have given the opponents of 
river improvement an opportunity to misinterpret, and therefore misrepresent, the 
object we seek to accomplish. The word " reclamation " has furnished them with, the 
key-note of unjust criticism. We simply ask protection from the frequent ravages of 
this great river, over which no power but the General Government has legal control, 
in order that we who possess lands along its course may have an opportunity to re- 
claim and cultivate them at our own expense. 

In another speech in the House of Eepresentatives, May 18, 1882, on 
the subject of the ''protection of the valley," he was still more explicit, 
and stated the case with great force, as follows: 

la brief, we ask the protection not simply of alluvial lands, but agriculture in a 
broad and national sense ; not only agriculture, but manufactures, commerce, the 
postal service, and the people themselves of the lower valley, an alluvial area em- 
bracing 41,000 square miles, or nearly as large as all New England ; three times the 
area of the celebrated valley of the Nile, formerly the granary of the oriental world; 
and eighteen times the size of Holland — a magnificent empire in its extent and re- 
sources. 

From what do we ask protection ? From the overflows of a great national sewer 
filled with the drainage of the twenty-eight States and Territories ; from the overflow 
of a great national highway of commerce, the trunk line of forty-two navigable trib- 
utaries, which supplj^ water transportation to twentj^-two States and Territories ; 
from the overflow of a Government postal-route, a river subject to the admiralty and 
maritime jurisdiction of the United States ; from an enemy in whose clutches a single 
State is as powerless as a little child in the deadly clasp of the octopus ; from a river 
which in itself and in its relations to the nation is exceptional. 



VII.-DESTRUCTIVE FLOODS. 

The destructive floods of the Mississippi Valley not only sweep over 
the alluvial lauds of the lower valley between Cairo and the Gulf, but 
frequently occur in the valleys of the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, 
Ohio, Red, Arkansas, Tennessee, Cumberland, Yazoo, and other rivers 
of this comprehensive system, carrying with them enormous destruction 
to crops, roads, railroads, postal-routes, buildings, live-stock, commerce, 
and industries. They are often attended with the loss of life itself. 

FLOODS OF 1868 AND 1871. 

Mr. Morey, in his report to thi^ House of Representatives during the 
Forty-second Congress, said of the floods of 1808 and 1871 : 

The destnicti'^n caused by the last two floods above uamed in the Ouachita Valley- 
is almost incredible. A valley of almost unexampled fertility, capable of raising, 
beside corn and stock in gieat al>unaauce, at least 75,000 bales of cotton, worth, at 
the average price of this season, more than $5,000,000, was inundated, plantations 
destroyed, buildings washed away, cattle and swine by the thousand starved or 
drowned, etc. 

FLOOD OF 1874. 

Another flood iu 1871 was still more destructive. Mr. Ellis, in his re- 
port to the House, in 187G, says of it : 

The loss by the flood of 1874 was $13,000,000. This year, so far as it can be ascer- 
tained, it is !|2,000,000. And this makes the total sura $15,000,000 in actual material 
wealth within three years. 

FLOOD OF 1881. 

The great flood throughout the length and breadth of the Mississippi 
Valley in the spring of 1881 was unusually destructive, the damage 
amouutiug to many millions of dollars. As it is impossible to give an 
accurate estimate of the total damage, we will give a few illustrations 
by extracts from the press dispatches published iu leading daily papers 
of that time: 

Omaha, April 25. — The flood still continues. The river rose 2 inches last night at 
this point, but it has doue no further damage to manufacturing interests on the water 
front. Much lumber in the yards has been removed to higher ground. The Union 
Pacific shops and smelting works, Boj'd's packing-house and distillery are still under 
water, and 1,600 men are out of employment. 

At Council Bluffs one-half of the city is under water, and 600 people are homeless. 
All passengers from Eastern trains are transferred by boat to the Union Pacific depot. 

A dispatch from Sioux City announces a fall of 6 inches at that point. 

This morning high winds set in from the north and stirred up the vast body of 
water north of the long embankment leading up to the Union Pacific bridge on the 
east side, and the high waves dashing against it soon washed out the dirt close up to 
the ties. This was discovered just in time to prevent an accident, and a large force 
of men were put to work piling sand bags along the north side, thus breaking the 
force of the waves and saving the embankment. Two hours more and the water 
would have taken out a section of sevei'al hundred feet of the approach to the bridge. 
The transfer of passengers, baggage, and mails is continued by boat at Council Bluffs. 

27 



28 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

There is no material change in affairs here since yesterday. The Union Pacific road 
is running regular trains. 

The village of Waterloo, nearElkhorn River, 25 miles west of Omaha, is flooded 
to a depth of 5 feet. 

The overflow, which covers the country for many miles, is doing considerable dam- 
age to farms in Elkhorn Valley. 

Some citizens of Waterloo claimed their town was flooded owing to the Union Pacific 
Railroad embankment holding the water back, and they threatened to open a channel 
through it, but were prevented by the timely appearance of a sherifi: and posse of 
constables from Omaha. Six ice-houses, located in Omaha Bottoms, have been 
wrecked by high water and rendered a total loss. A large wagon-bridge came down 
the river to-day, landing on the east side of the smelting works. 

Hannibal, Mo., April 25. — The Sny levee broke at 3 o'clock this morning, at a point 
about a mile and a half above East Hannibal. The crevasse is 130 feet wide, and the 
water is still cutting both below and above the break. Near East Hannibal there 
are several weak points liable to go at any moment. The river is 19 feet and 1 inch 
above low-water mark, and is still rising, but very slowly. 

Trains fromQuincy to Hannibal, via the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, 
are abandoned, the track between Fall Creek and East Hannibal inside the levee 
being under water. It is estimated that 30,000 acres of fall wheat had been sown in- 
side the levee, all of which is now a total loss. There are nearer 10,000 acres, the 
yield of which heretofore had averaged 30 bushels to the acre. This season it stood 
finer than ever. The loss on wheat alone is placed at $1,000,000. The river is still 
slowly rising, and has now nearly reached the highest poiut of last year. 

Saint Louis, April 25. — The river is rising and rapidly approaching the danger line. 
A rise of another fooc and the water will submerge some of the low lands in the north- 
ern part of the city, and inundate part of the bottoms on the Illinois side of the river. 
Much apprehension is felt for property on both sides of the river, and measures are 
being taken to protect it. Old steam-boat men are predicting a flood of unusual 
magnitude, and say that if the present warm weather continues, and particularly if 
there is much rainfall in the north, a freshet equal to that of 1844 will probably 
follow. 

Bismarck, April 25. — One mile of track and thirty pile-bridges washed away consti- 
tute the extent of damages on the Northern Pacific extension. Night and day forces 
are at work repairing, and trains to the end of the track are promised in a few days. 

Kansas City, April f5. — The levee which was built to protect the town of Harlem 
and the broad bottom lands opposite the city from overflowing gave way on Saturday 
night, and a strong current, 10 feet deep, is now running at the rate of 5 or 6 miles an 
hour over the tracks of the Hannibal and Saint Joseph, Council Bluff's, Chicago, Rock 
Island and Pacific, and Wabash roads. For nearly a mile all these tracks are supposed 
to be washed out. The levee gave way about 10 o'clock at night. The water is over- 
flowing a large number of farms to the depth of from. 4 to 6 feet. 

Saint Paul, Minn., April 25. — A special from Fergus Falls says the upper country is 
an unbroken sheet of water, beginning at a point about 25 miles below Saint Vincent 
and extending this way to the vicinity of Crookston. Twenty-five miles south of Ste- 
venson the watei nas swept away the track of the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Man- 
itoba Railroad, and all railroad travel is suspended. 

Saint Paul, Minn., April 27. — The flood at Saint Paul, caused by the coming down 
of high water in the Minnesota River, continues. The water has now reached 18 feet 
in the channel — 3 feet higher than during the June rise of last year, and the highest 
point readied since the great flood of 1867. There is to-day scarcely a foot of uncovered 
land in the entire country west of Saint Paul, flat lands, over which the waters are not 
now running riot. Old residents there affirm that although they have frequently seen 
the water cover the lowlands, they have never known the current so strong as to sweep 
over them with such overwhelming velocity as it is doing to-day. The current carried 
away the bank on which Fifth street is built this morning, and there is only a siugle 
road remaining uncovered between river and bluif. A visit to the scene to-day found 
hundreds of houses isolated by water and the occupants busy moving. The sides of 
the raised embankment were filled in many places with all manner of household effects, 
which kad been brought in boats from the inundated residences, and around which 
were the owners watching and guarding the same while awaiting the arrival of vehi- 
cles to transport the goods to some place of safety. 

Omaha, Nebr., April 27.— The river has fallen'lO inches here. A further fall of 18 
inches is reported at Sioux City. Information having been received at Nebraska City 
that many people living on the river north of that city were in great peril, one of the 
ferry-boats started out yesterday and rescued nearly 200 men, women, and children, 
some of whom had been without food two or three days, and were suff'ering extremely 
from hunger. These people were lodged in the opera house, the city hall, churches, 
and other public buildings. * * * 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 29 

East Nebraska, on tbe Iowa side of the river, is entirely flooded, and all the inhab- 
itants have been compelled to abandon their homes and seek refuge in Nebraska City 
proper. Tlioiisauds of people along the river bottoms in Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and 
Kansas are homeless and destitute Passengers, mail, and baggage trains arrived here 
same as the last few days, only did it more rapidly than heretofore. It will be at least 
one week before the railroads get into the same shape as before the flood. 

Saint Joseph, Mo., Ajiril 27. — The river at this point is 22 feet 6 inches above low- 
water mark aud rising slowly. Many families have been rescued from their inundated 
houses in the bottom lands duriug the day, generally in destitute circumstances. All 
the available flat-boats have been in use removiug people aud stock. An old mau and 
his wife, 76 to 80 years of age, were to-day rescued from the Elmwood bottom, whera 
they were living in a small one-story house, having been two or three days surrounded 
by the swift current, a mile from land, aud the water 2 feet deep in the house. * » * 

Atchison, Eans., April 27. — Contrary to expectations, the river has continued to rise 
steadily duriug the past twenty-four hours and is now 22 feet 4 inches above low-water 
mark and at least 20 inches above the level of the great flood of 1844. The Missouri 
Pacific road continues to atford the only connection with the East, and it has to send 
its passengers aud mails around by way of Topeka. 

Chicago, April 20. — The total loss of property by the flood on the Missouri River 
and its tributaries between Sioux City and Bismarck is estimated at$2,500,000. Below 
Sioux Citj^ including the damage done at Omaha, Council Bluff's, Kansas City, aud the 
great overflow on both sides of the Missouri between these cities and Saint Louis, the 
amount of loss is computed at $1,500,000. 

FLOOD OF 1882. 

In the spring of 1882 another destructive flood spread over the Lower 
Mississippi Valley. Its damage in the States of Mississippi and Arkan- 
sas was described in the following debate in the United States Senate, 
February 23, 1882: 

Mr. George. Mr. President, I should like to be indulged in making a remark or 
two explanatory of the magnitude of the disaster referred to in the joint resolution. 

The district overflowed from the breaking of the levee embraces all the Mississippi 
Delta between Memphis and Vicksburg, about 15 miles in length and about 40 miles 
in breadth. All of it is either now under water or will be in a short time. I desire 
also to state, for the information of the Senate, that four-tifths of the population 
which inhabit that district is composed of colored laborers, who have not the means 
of support during the time when this overflow will necessarily interrupt labor. 

Mr. IxGALLS. What is the estimated number of laborers who have been rendered 
destitute by this inundation ? 

Mr. George. They inhabit a district about 150 miles long by about 40 wide. I sup- 
pose there must be from 50,000 to 75,000 inhabitants in that district. 

Mr. Teller. What proportion of them will be rendered destitute ? 

Mr. George. Four-fifths. I desire also to state, for the information of Senators who 
are not familiar with the length or duration of an overflow in the Mississippi bot- 
toms, that it is not an affair of a day or a week. The overflows in that section of the 
Mississippi bottoms generally continue from four to six weeks before there is a sub- 
sidence of the waters, and during all that time there is a total suspension of all 
labor; the water gets all over the whole country. 

I have confined my statement to the destitution in Mississippi. There are contigu- 
ous districts on the western bank of the Mississippi River, in the State of Arkansas, 
that suffer from the same overflow. The Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Garland] will 
make a statement upon that subject. 

I shall ask to have the joint resolution referred to the Committee on the Improve- 
ment of the Mississippi River and its Tributaries, in the hope that that committee maj 
act upon it with promptness, as the matter will not admit of delay. 

Mr. Garland. The information that the Senator from Mississippi gives in reference 
to his own State applies exactly to the State of Arkansas, which is in front of the over- 
flowed Mississippi River. The intelligence that 1 receive from that portion of the Stat# 
of Arkansas' through lelegrams, letters, and newspapers represents the destruction 
there as widespread aud as absolutely appalling and unprecedented. The overflow 
has taken barns and granaries, aud has swept away the last stock the farmers aud 
planters of that country owned and had to live upon. 

I am not prepared in my own mind to say just exactly what relief or what measure 
of relief Congress can or should afford, but certainly there is now a just demand for 
relief, if it is in the power of Congress to grant it. I hope the joint resolution will 
be referred to the committee indicated by the Senator from Mississippi, and that that 
committee may see proper to give it early consideration and report some measure for 
the relief of those suffering peoi)le« 



30 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

Mr. Hampton. I just came into the Seuate wheu the joint resolntiou was sent to 
the Clerk's desk and read, and as I am very familiar with that section of country, hav- 
ing been there a great deal, I wish to make a statement in regard to it. 

The area of land which will be overflowed if the river risey as high as it has done 
formerly will cover the richest portion of the Mississippi Valley on the Arkansas side 
and on the Mississippi side. I am more familiar with it on the Mississippi side than on 
the Arkansas side; but it will cover the most productive and finest cotton-growing terri- 
tory in the whole State. I have known the river to be at that point sometimes nearly 
150 miles wide, for it covers from the Yazoo hills on the one side to the Arkansas bluffs 
on the other, and in that whole section of country, if the river is as high as these dis- 
patches say it is, there will hardly be an,> land at all above overflow. There are only a 
few spots in that great Mississippi bottom which are above overflow, and the destruc- 
tion not only of stock, but of the incoming crop, will be so great that I have no hesi- 
tation in saying that the dispatches from the governor of Mississippi give but a faint 
idea of the destitution and starvation that will follow there. 

My friend from Mississippi thinks that there are 75,000 ]jeople in this area covered. 
I think he has underestimated the number very mucb. 

Mr. George. I spoke of the Mississippi side. 

Mr. Hampton. On the Mississippi side I think the numbers would be very much 
larger than that. Nearly the whole of those people are colored people ; they rentthe 
land and the loss will fall upon them. They nave made no provisions at all for im- 
mediate sustenance, and unless some aid can be given promptly, I have no question 
that there will be starvation and infinite suffering in that whole country. 

FLOOD OF 18S3. 

In tbe spring of 1883 an unusually destructive flood in the Ohio River 
Yalley submerged a large portion of the city of Cinciuuati, which was 
very forcibly described in the following dispatch from Murat Halstead, 
February 16, 1883 : 

The loss of life has not been very great, but the destruction of household property 
is enormous, and clothing, sheltering, and feeding the poor who have fled from their 
homes will strain all resources. The care of property in the submerged district is a 
great task, and our military companies are out at night patrolling the streets. The 
school-houses are crowded with fugitives. The coal supply of the city is under water. 
The water-works are overwhelmed. The gas-works are submerged. Our condition is 
in many respects critical, but nothing but a sudden and immense rain-fall beyond all 
example can prevent our relief by the fall of the river. There are remarkable coin- 
cidences between this monstrous rise in the Ohio and the December overflows of the 
Rhine and Danube. The parallel between the Rhine especially and the Ohio in the 
origin, progress, extent, and duration of the floods is very striking, and the corre- 
spondence in the two cases may be traced also in the intelligent compassion and re- 
markable liberality with which the sufferings of those made homeless, whether on the 
Rhine or the Ohio, were regarded and relieved by the enlightened and the benevolent. 

The above are but illustrations of the frequent and wholesale destruc- 
tion and desolation caused by the floods throughout the length and 
breadth of the great valley. But they are sufficient to show that these 
floods pay no attention to State lines and that they are national in ex- 
tent and magnitude. 



VIII.-NATIONAL FEATURES. 

NATIONAL IN EXTENT. 

A river system iu which twenty-one States and Territories have a di- 
rect business interest, and nearly all others an indirect interest ; which 
intersects the great productive center of the continent, and bj means 
of cheap trausi)ortation brings the producer ana consumer into easy 
communication ; which supplies a connecting link between internal and 
international commerce, is something more than sectional — it is em- 
phatically national. The navigable portions alone of the Mississippi 
and tributaries are distributed among the States substantially as follows: 



Arkansas - . 
Missouri . . . 
Louisiana. . 
Mississippi 
Montana .. 

Dakota 

Illinois . . - . 
Tennessee . 
Kentucky . 
Indiana. . . . 
Iowa 



Miles. 



2,375 
3,950 
1,925 
1,380 
l,fJ10 
1,280 
],270 
1,200 
1,230 
840 
830 



Indian Territory 

Minnesota 

Ohio 

Wisconsin 

Texas 

Nebraska 

West Virginia . 
Pennsylvania. . . 

Kansas 

Alabama 



Miles. 



720 
660 
550 
520 
4i0 
400 
390 
250 
240 
200 



They also supply facilities for inland inter-communication by water 
between the following cities : 



Saiut Paul, Mi uu. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Ciuciunati, Ohio. 
Louisville, Ky. 
Omaha, Nebr. 
P'eoria, 111. 
Vicksburg, Miss. 
La Cro.sse, Wis. 
Wheeling, W.Va. 



Nashville, Teuu. 
Little Eock, Ark. 
Decatur, Ala. 
Cairo, 111. 
New Orleans, La. 
Saiut Louis, Mo. 
Kansas Citj^, Mo. 
Keokuk, Iowa. 
Kuosville, Tenu. 



Memphis, Teuu. 
Minneapolis, Miuu. 
Shreveport, La. 
Sioux City, Iowa. 
Quiucy, 111. 
Parkersburgh, W. Va. 
Dubuque, Iowa. 
Jefferson City, Mo. 



And several hundred other cities and important commercial towns scat- 
tered, as they are, over different sections of a great and broad country. 

If to these rivers we add the existing supplements, we find that they 
supply facilities for inland water inter-communication between twenty- 
five States and Territories. 

i^.dding the projected or proposed supplements above described, they 
will supply the facilities for twenty-nine States and Territories. 

And adding to the above other States and Territories which rest upon 
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, we find that the Mississippi and tribu- 
taries, with existing and proposed supplements, and the oceans on the 
east and west, will permit water intercommunication between forty-one 
States and Territories, or all but five of the total forty-six States and 
Territories of the entire Union. 

31 



32 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

NATIONAL IN LAW. 

This river system is also national in law. The doctrine as declared 
by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of the Daniel 
Ball, 10 Wallace, 557, is as follows: 

Those rivers mnst be regarded as public navigable rivers in law -which are navigable 
in fact. And they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susceptible of be- 
ing used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce, over which trade 
and travel are, or may be, conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on 
"water. And they constitute navigable waters of the United States, within the mean- 
ing of the acts of Congress, in contradistinction from the navigable waters of the 
States, when they form in their ordinary condition, by themselves or by uniting 
with other waters, a continued highway over which commerce is, or may be, carried 
on with other States or foreign countries in the customary modes in which such com- 
merce is conducted by water. 

NATIONAL IN BENEFITS. 

In its benefits, also, this net-work of water-ways is national. The 
consumer of the East and the producer of the West have a common in- 
terest in cheap transportation and cheap food. The recognition of this 
principle on the floor of the United States Senate should be considered 
by every one who, through wrong information, superficial observation, 
or sectional feeling, imagines that the improvement of the Mississippi 
Eiver is a local movement. We refer to the tribute by Senator Bayard, 
who said in the United States Senate in June, 1880, in speaking of the 
improvements already made at the mouth of the river : 

The results of such a work, if maintained according to present promise and to all 
reasonable hope, are magnificent and incalculable in their benefit, not simply to a 
State but to the entire Union, and not simply to the entire Union, but yon may say 
the benefits are world-wide. It is making food cheaper for this world that the Mis- 
sissippi Eiver can perform its great carrying functions to bring the vast crops of j)ro- 
ducts of the wheat lands, and the granary of this country and of the world, into the 
use of mankind in general. 

NATIONAL IN DAMAGE. 

As shown in a previous chapter the periodical floods of the valley are 
national in the extent and magnitude of their destruction. They are 
also beyond the jurisdiction and control of individual States, as was 
very clearly stated in the following extracts from a speech on this sub- 
ject by Hon. E. W. Eobertson, of Louisiana, in the House of Eepreseut- 
atives May 18, 1882 : 

On the west bank of the Mississippi there was built a continuous line of levee ex- 
tending from Louisiana into Arkansas. For about fifteen years past thelevee has been 
broken for several miles above and below the boundary line dividing the two States, 
Arkansas, for some reason is indifferent to repairs at this particular place. The re- 
sult is that the floods which sweep through the gap in Arkansas continue down 
through Louisiana in the rear of her system of levees, thereby nullifying all the 
efforts of the latter State to secure protection. Does any one contend that Louisiana 
has jurisdiction over Arkansas ? The two States can not even make a binding agree- 
ment on the subject of protection, for the Constitution expressly denies their right 
to enter into treaties between themselves. It is, then, worse than idle to tell us of 
the lower valley to protect ourselves. * * * Q^^n States combine to accomplish 
this protection, '* to provide for the common defense and general welfare ? " Not at 
all, for they are expressly prohibited by section 10 of the same article, which says : 
"No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation." 

How, then, can the States of the lower valley agree upon a uniform plan of pro- 
tection from their common enemy, the great and national Mississippi in flood-time ? 
They can not. They are powerless. They are helpless, and subject to the mercy of 
the floods. 

They invoke, then, the aid of that Federal power whose fundamental object is the 
protection of its own citizens and its own States. 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 33 

NATIONAL IN POLITICS. 

The political features of the Mississippi and tributaries are also na- 
tional. If to the Representatives of the people in Congress from the 
sixteen Valley States and Territories were added those from Pennsylva- 
nia, West Virginia, Alabama, and Texas, which States are intersected 
by and have an extensive business interest in the navigable waters of 
these rivers, the result would show a very huge majority in the House 
of Representatives. But it is unnecessary to urge this point, for all 
sections have a common interest in the great water-ways which inter- 
sect the granary of a common country. Instead of being an element of 
strife and sectional antagonism, the Mississippi is a bond ot union. In 
this respect nature has accomplished for the people of the great inte- 
rior what President Washington was so anxious to see accomplished for a 
similar purpose in another direction by artificial and costly means. We 
refer to his favorite project of uniting, by a canal, the Potomac River and 
a tributary of the Ohio, so as to bind, in commercial and political ties, 
the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic States. To create a similar bond 
of union between the Pacific States and the rest of the country. Con- 
gress, at the close of the late civil war, granted to the Union and Cen- 
tral Pacific Railway Companies 20,000,000 acres of public lands, and 
loaned $53,121,632 in bonds. 

Nature has, without cost, bound together the many States of the 
North and South and of the great interior in a perfect net- work of com- 
mercial ties. 

The problem of new and enlarged commercial intercourse and fellow- 
ship between the two sections is not a difficult one, if we look to the 
Mississippi for a solution. This was demonstrated a few years ago by 
the enthusiastic response from both sides of the House of Representa- * 
lives to tbe remarks by General Garfield, closing the debate on the 
Mississippi River Commission bill, with the following liberal sentiment: 

I rejoice in any occasion whicli enables Representatives from the North and from 
tbe South to unite in an unpartisan effort to promote a great national interest. [Ap- 
plause.] Such an occasion is good for us both. And when we can do it without the 
sacrifice of our convictions and can benefit millions of our fellow-citizens, and can 
thereby strengthen the bonds of the Union, we ought to do it with rejoicing ; for in 
doing so we inspire our people with larger and more generous views, and help to con- 
firm for them and for our children to our latest generations the indissoluble Union 
and the permanent grandeur of this Republic. I shall vote for this bill. [Applause 
on both sides of the House. 1 

OPINIONS OF NATIONAL STATESMEN. 

John C. Calhoun, the strictest of strict constructionists, said of it, in 
1845, in a speech delivered at Memphis : 

The invention of Fulton has, in reality, for all practical purposes, converted the 
Mississippi with all its tributaries into an inland sea. Regarding it as such I am 
prepared to place it on tbe same footing with the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, tbe Chesa- 
peake and Delaware bays, and the Lakes in reference to the superintendence of the 
General Government over its navigation. It is raauifest that it is far beyond the 
power of individual or separate States to supervise it. 

Vice-President Hendricks, in a speech delivered in 186 I, said : 

That river is under the control of the Government for almost every purpose. It is 
a great channel of commerce ; it is the nation's river ; it does not belong to Louisiana, 
it does not belong to Mississippi ; it is the river of all the States. 

General Garfield, while in the House of Representatives, said, in sup- 
port of the bill creating the Mississippi River Commission: 

I believe that one of the grandest of our material and national interests, one that 
is national in the largest material sense of that word, is the Mississippi River and its 

6408 3 



34 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

navigable tributaries. It is the most gigantic single natural feature of our continent, 
far transcending the glory of the ancient Nile or of any other river on the earth. 
The statesmanship of America must grapple the problem of this mighty stream. It 
is too vast for anj^ State to handle ; too much for any authority less than that of the 
nation itself to manage. And I believe the time will come when the liberal-minded 
statesmanship) of this country will devise a wise and comprehensive system that will 
harness the powers of this great river to the material interests of America, so that 
not only all the x^eople who live on its banks and the banks of its confluents, but all 
the citizens of the Republic, whether dwellers in the central valley or on the slope of 
either ocean, will recognize the importance of preserving and perfecting this great 
natural and material bond of national union between the North and South, a bond 
to be so strengthened by commerce and intercourse that it can never be severed. 
[Applause. J 

In Ms letter of July 10, 1880, accepting the nomination for the Pres- 
idency, General Garfield farther said : 

The Mississippi River, with its great tributaries, is of such vital importance to so 
many millions of people that the safety of its navigation requires exceptional consid- 
eration. In order to secure to the nation the control of all its waters. President 
Jefferson negotiated the purchase of a vast territory extending from the Gulf of 
Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. 

The wisdom of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by which the great 
river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its banks, and by which its 
shipping may safely carry the industrial products of twenty-iive millions of people. 

In his annual message to Congress in 1880 President Hayes said : 

A comprehensive improvement of the Mississippi and its tributaries is a matter of 
transcendent importance. These great water-ways comprise a system of inland trans- 
portation spread like net-work over a large portion of the United States, and navigable 
to the extent of manj' thousands of miles. Producers and consumers alike have a com- 
mon interest in such unequaled facilities for chea]) transportation. Geographically, 
commercially, and politically, they are the strongest tie between the various sections of 
the country. These channels of commMnicatiou and interchange are the property of 
the nation. Its jurisdiction is paramount over their waters, and the plainest princi- 
ples of public interest require their intelligent and careful supervision, with a view 
to their protection, improvement, and the enhancement of their usefulness. 

President Cleveland, in a speech delivered at Memphis, Tenn., Oc- 
tober 15, 1887, said : 

There iiows past your city our nation's great river, which you rightly regard as a 
most important factor in your present and future welfare, and which I believo is uni- 
versally recognized as a proper object of governmental protection and improvement. 
To Memphis and to every other city on its banks the improvement of this vast high- 
way of commerce is so essential that they should be interested in having this and 
other xDroijer work of the same description considered upon their merits, and freed 
from schemes sometimes questionable in their character and often extravagant in 
their demands. 




FOREIGN COMMERCE 
SECOND CENTURY. 






IX-INTERNATIONAL FEATURES. 

AMERICAN COUNTRIES AT THE SOUTH. 

The Lower Mississippi is the traulc line of the 1C,090 miles of navi- 
gable water-ways of this great river system. After intersecting or bor- 
dering twenty-one States and Territories of the great interior it con- 
verges and terminates at the Gulf of Mexico. Facing its mouth there 
are on the continent south of the United States fifteen Spanish-Ameri- 
can Republics, the Portuguese-American Empire of Brazil, and four 
European colonies, which have a total ))opulation of 45,000,000 consum- 
ers and an area of 8,000,000 square miles, or more than double that of 
the United States. 

Also, facing its mouth are the various West India Islands, with an 
area of about 100,000 squaxe miles and a population of about 4,000,000 
souls. 

The names and ownership of the forty principal West India Islands 
and the several countries on the continent are, in detail, as follows : 

Spanish West Indies : Cuba, Porto Eico, and Isle of Pines. 

British West Indies : elamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad, Grenada, St. Vin- 
cent, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Christopher, Caymans, Virgin 
Islands, Tobago, Grenadines, Barbadoes, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis 
and Eodouda, and Anguilla. 

French West Indies: Martinique, Desirade, Les Saintes, Guadeloupe, 
and Marie Galante. 

Dutch West Indies : St. Martin, Saba, Oruba, St. Eustatius, Curacoa, 
and Buen Ayre. 

Danish West Indies: St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, and St. John. 

Swedish West Indies : St. Bartholomew. 

Venezuelan West Indies : Marguerite, Les Siete Hermanos, and Tor- 
tuga. 

Independent West Indies : Hayti and San Domingo. 

Central American republics : Guatemala, San Salvador, Costa Eica, 
Honduras, and Nicaragua. 

Central American colony : British Honduras. 

Mexican Eepublic: Comprising twenty-seven states, one territory, 
and a federal district. 

South American republics : United States of Colombia, Chili, Argen- 
tine Republic, Ecuador, Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Para- 
guay. 

South American Empire : Brazil. 

South American colonies : British Guiana, French Guiana, and Dutch 
Guiana. 

In view of this colossal showing one would naturally expect to find a 
la>rge portion of the foreign commerce of the United States to be with 
the neighboring sister American nations. 

What are the facts *? 

35 



36 



THE MISIISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 

The foreign commerce of the Unitsed States during the first century 
of its existence was mainly with Europe. The course of trade at the 
end of one hundred years is as follows : 

Per cent. 

Exports to Europe aud adjacent countries, on the east 81 

Exports to American conntries, on the south 10 

Exports to British America, on the north 5 

Exports to Pacific countries, on the west 4 

The one-sided nature of our commerce may be seen by a glance at 
the accompanying diagr am illustrating the general course of steamship 
lines. 

Our exports are also unsymmetrical in quality, 74 per cent, being the 
product of agriculture and only 15 per cent, the products of manufact- 
ure. 

Of our total annual manufactures, which during the census year end- 
ing 1880 were $5,369,579,191 in value, but 2 per cent, finds foreign 
markets. This is indeed an astonishing state of affairs, a defect in our 
commercial relations with the outside world which must be cured, a 
weak spot which must be built up and strengthened. 

The annual foreign commerce of the various American countries south 
of the United States during the last attainable year were, according to a 
recent report by Secretary Frelinghuysen, in response to a Senate reso- 
lution of inquiry, as follows: 



Mexico 

Central America 

British Honduras 

United States of Colombia 

Venezuela 

Britisli Guiana 

French Guiana 

Dutch Guiana 

Brazil 

Uruguay 

Argentine Republic 

Chili 

Bolivia 

Peru 

Ecuador 

Spanish West Indies 

Hayti and San Domingo - - 

Total 



Total imports 
of merchandise. 



$42, 

10, 

1, 

23, 

10, 

10, 

1, 

1, 

79, 

17, 

80, 

53, 

12, 

6, 

62, 

7, 



579, 000 
000, 000 
164, 000 
000, OOO 
8.59, 000 
000, OOO 
GOO, 000 
400, 000 
169, 000 
919, 000 
436, 000 
304, 000 
900, 000 
000, 000 
000, 000 
805, 000 
724, 000 



420, 859, 000 



Imports from 
United States. 



$12,704,000 

3, 178, 000 

430, 000 

6, 380, 000 

2, 427, 000 

1, 884, COO 

102, 000 

320,000 

8, 695, 010 

1, 368, 000 

5, 075, 000 

3, 267, 000 



1,071,000 

629, 000 

13, 135, 000 

4, 054, OOO 



64, 090, 000 



In brief, we supply but 15 per cent, of the demand, or but about one- 
seventh part. 

It is easy to understand why we control so insignificant a portion of 
this valuable trade when we examine the record of our exports to those 
countries from New Orleans, which port represents the principal south- 
ern outlet of the Mississippi Valley. The value of exports of domestic 
merchandise from New Orleans to the various and neighboring Ameri- 
can countries and islands on the south was, during the fiscal year end- 
ing June 30, 1886, as follows: 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLK TRIBUTARIES. 



37 



From New Orleans to- 


Amount. 


From New Orleans to— 


Amount. 


Argentine Kepublic 


$7, 215 


Hayti 

Mexico 


"" $562,572 




32, 251 
40, 992 
150, 127 
63, 841 






Dutch Guiana 






Peru 












Cuba 


29, 618 


Chili 




Porto Rico 






United States of Colombia. 


14, 896 



















9,770 


Total 






1, 063, 660 




152, 372 











In other words the principal port on the southern coast of the United 
States is not doing its duty in supplying the Spanish and Portuguese 
American markets with our surplus products and manufactures. Na- 
ture has done everything to stimulate trade in this direction, bat for 
some unaccountable reason it has been neglected by the United States. 

Another astonishing defect in our foreign trade relations may be 
seen by reference to the total commerce of the various countries sur- 
rounding the Pacific Ocean and facing the west coast of the United 
States. 

During a recent year their total annual imports and the share of the 
same supplied by the United States were as follows : 



Total im- 
ports from 
all nations. 



Japan 

China 

Hong-Kong 

Philippine Islands 

Dutcli India 

Siam 

Straits Settlements 

Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania 

Total 



296, 000 
632, OOU 
834, 000 
032, 000 
485, 000 
500, 000 
174, 000 
600, 000 



529, 553, 000 



Of this total demand we supplied but $20,497,000 in value, or less 
than 4 per cent. 

The above is the result of our foreign coDimerce during the first cen- 
tury of the Eepublic. What now is the outlook for the future ? 

OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE SECOND CENTURY. 



A question of transcendent importance to the United States to-day 
is the development of new foreign markets for our surjilus manufact- 
ures. It is useless to look to Europe for adequate outlets, for it is 
well supplied with manufactures of its own and has a surplus for export. 
We must rather look to the open, unsupplied, and inviting trade fields 
of Spanish and Portuguese America. 

The question arises, how may these open and profitable fields be im- 
proved ? ISTature and common sense, the producer and consumer, all 
demand that the neighboring Mississippi Valley, with its great water- 
ways, terminating at the Gulf, and with its surplus grain and provis- 
ions, take the lead in this new commercial movement. Direct and cheap 



38 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 

transportation by way of the river and Gulf, in place of indirect ship- 
ments from the valley up and down the Alleghenies and then around 
and back again to the Indies, Mexico, and South and Central America,^ 
is the true solution of this commercial problem, ^ew York is chiefly 
occupied with European trade, but the port at the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi has the time as well as the favorable situation to make a success 
of American foreign commerce. It devolves upon her and the other 
trade centers of the valley to take the lead. The material interests of 
the entire country require it. 

A few weeks before his assassination President Garfield said in an 
address to the graduating class at Annapolis: ''The Pacific is yet ta 
be opened, and you gentlemen will be the ones to scout it for us." The 
significance of this remark will be appreciated by reference to the pre- 
ceding trade statistics, and the diagram showing the Isthmian barrier 
which now stands in the pathway of direct water communication be- 
tween the great Mississippi Valley and the Pacific. 

The opening of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec will shorten the water 
route between the mouth of the Mississippi and Hong-Kong 10,502 
miles each way, or 21,004 miles on the round voyage, for steamers be- 
tween those two ports must now go around distant Cape Horn. In 
brief, the piercing of this isthmus for the transit of ships will place 
the Mississippi Valley in direct water communication with Australia, 
the countries of the Orient, and the west coast of Central and South 
America. Then we may exj^ect our due share of that valuable foreign 
trade of which the United States now controls but about 4 per cent, 
and in which New Orleans has no participation. 

The adequate development of these long-neglected foreign markets of 
the three Americas on the south and of the Oriental countries on the 
west is the great material problem now awaiting solution. 

These inviting trade fields constitute whatmay appropriately be termed 
our foreign commerce of the secontl century, and should, without farther 
delay, be occupied with our surplus ]3roducts and manufactures. 

In his memorable tribute to America, in L878, Gladstone said, in con- 
trasting the commercial future of England and the United States : 

It is she alone who at a coming time can and pi'obably will wrest from ns that com- 
mercial primacy. We have no title ; I have no inclination to murmur at the prospect. 
If she acquires it she will make the acquisition by the right of the strongest; but in 
this instance the strongest means the best. She will probably become what we are 
now, the head servant in the great household of the world, the employer of all employed, 
because her service will be the most and the ablest. We have no more title against her 
than Venice, or Genoa, or Holland has had against us. 

There is no better way to facilitate the attainment of the "commer- 
cial primacy" here prophesied than by developing the international 
features of the Mississippi Eiver and Valley. 



APPENDIX. 



Act creating the Commission. 

AN ACT to provide for the appointment of a " Mississippi Iliver Commission " for the improvement 
of said river from the Head of the Passes, near its mouth, to its headwaters. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress asseml)led, That a commission is hereby created, to be called "The Missis- 
sippi River Comniissiou," to consist of seven members. 

Sec. 2. The President of the United States shall, by and with, the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate, appoint seven commissioners, three of whom shall be selected from 
the Engineer Corps of the Army, one from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and three 
from civil life, tvs'o of whom shall be civil engineers. And any vacancy which may 
occur in the Commission shall iu like manner be filled by the President of the United 
States ; and he shall designate one of the commissioners appointed from the Engineer 
Corps of the Army to be president of the Commission. The commissioners ai^pointed 
from the Engineer Corps of the Armj^ and the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall re- 
ceive no other pay or compensation than is novy allowed them by law, and the other 
three commissioners shall receive as pay and compensation for their services each the sum 
of $3,000 per anuum, and the commissioners appointed under this act shall remain in 
office subject to removal by the President of the United States. 

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of said Commission to direct and complete such surveys of 
said river, between the Head of the Passes, near its mottth, to its headwaters as may 
now be in progress, and to moke such additional surveys, examinations, and investi- 
gations, topographical, hydrographical, and hydrometrical, of said river and its tribu- 
taries, as may be deemed necessary by said Commission to carry out the objects of this 
act. And to enable said Commission to complete such surveys, examinations, and in- 
vestigations the Secretary of War shall, when requested by said Commission, detail 
from the Engineer Corps of the Army such officers and men as may be necessary, aud 
shall place in the charge aud for the use of said Commission, such vessel or vessels, 
and such machinery and instrumeots, as may be nuder his control, and may bedeeuied 
necessary. And the Secretary of the Treasury shall, when requested by said Commis- 
siou, in like manner detail from the Coast and Geodetic Survey such officers and men 
as may be necessarj', aud shall phxce in the charge and for the use of said Commission 
such vessel, or vessels, aud such machinery and instruments as may be under his con- 
trol, and may be deemed necessary. And said Commission may, with the approval of 
the Secretary of \Yar, employ such additional force and assistants, and provide, by pur- 
chase or otherwise, such vessels, or boats, aud such instruments and means, as may 
be deemed necessary. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of said Commission to take into consideration and mature 
such plan or plans, and estimates, as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the 
channel and protect the banks of the Mississippi River ; improve and give safety and 
ease to the navigation thereof; prevent destructive iioods ; promote and facilitate com- 
merce, trade, and the postal service ; aud when so prepared and matured, to submit to 
the Secretary of War a full and detailed report of their proceediugs and actions, aud of 
such plans, with estimates of the cost thereof for the i>urposes aforesaid, to be by him 
transmitted to Congress : Provided, That the Commission shall report iu full upon the 
practicabilitj', feasibility, and probable cost of the various plans known as the jetty sys- 
tem, the levee system, and the outlet system, as Avell as upou others as they deem 
necessary. 

Sec. 5. The said Commission may, prior to the completiou of all the surveys and ex- 
aminations contemplated by this act, prepare and submit to the Secretary of War plans, 
specifications, and estimates of costs for such immediate works as in the judgment of 
said Commission may constitute a part of the general system of works hereiu contem- 
plated, to be by him transmitted to Congress. 

Sec. 6. The Secretary of War may detail from the Engineer Corps of the Army of the 
United States an officer to act as secretarv of said Commission. 

89 



40 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 



Sec. 7. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to expend the sum of $175,000, or 
so much thereof as may be necessary, for the payment of the salaries herein provided 
for, and of the necessary expenses incurred in the completion of such surveys as may 
now be in progress, and of such additional surveys, examinations, and investigations as 
may be deemed necessary, reporting the plans and estiniates, and the plans and specifi- 
cations, and estimates contemplated by this act, as herein provided for ; and said sum 
is hereby appropriated for said jjurposes out of any money in the Treasury not other- 
wise appropriated. 

Approved June 28, 1879. 

Biver distances. 



Mississippi. 

Port Eads, La. (mouth of the Mississip- 
pi), to — 

Fort Saint Philip, La 

New Orleans, La 

Donaldsonville, La 

Baton Rouge, La 

Bayou Sara,La 

Mouth of Keel River 

Cerro Gordo, Miss 

Na^ Chez, Miss 

Saint Joseph, La , 

Grand Gulf 

Vioksburg, Miss 

Arcadia, Miss 

Auburn, Miss 

Greenville, Miss 

Arkansas City, Ark 

Napoleon (mouth of the Arkaffeas 

River) 

Concordia, Miss 

Robertsonville, Miss 

Modoc, Ark 

Helena, Ark 

Brinkley, Miss 

Memphis, Tenn 

Pilota, Ark 

Osceola, Ark 

State line of Arkansas and Missouri 

Silver Top, Tenn 

Hickman, Kj 

Belmont, Mo 

Cairo, 111 

Cape Girardeau, Mo 

Grand Tower, 111 

Cheste.r,Ill 

Saint G ene vieve. Mo 

Carondelet, Mo 

Saint Lonis, Mo 

Mouth of the Missouri River , 

Alton, 111 

Grafton, 111 , 

Mouth of the Illinois River 

Milan, 111 

Darten, Mo 

West Point, 111 

Hambursh, 111 

Clarksville, Mo 

Louisiana, Mo 

Cincinnati, 111 

Hannibal, Mo 

Q alney, 111 

Canton, Mo 

Alexandria, Mo 

Keokuk, Iowa 

- Nauvoo, HI 

Fort Madison, Iowa 

Burlington, Iowa 

Princeton, HI 

Muscatine, Iowa 

Fairport, 111 

Rock Island, 111 

Davenport, Iowa 

Cardova, 111 

Clinton, Iowa 

Savannah, 111 

Galena, 111 

Dubuque, Iowa 



35 

110 
189 
240 
277 
308 
339 
376 
433 
450 
483 
537 
587 
601 
624 

662 
689 
727 
760 
797 
832 
887 
914 
970 
1,011 
1,005 
1,112 
1,131 
1,152 
1,202 
1, 232 
1,272 
1,292 
1,346 
1,352 
1,373 
1,377 
1,395 
1,397 
1,401 
1,408 
1, 420 
1,439 
1,457 
1,469 
1,484 
1,499 
1, 520 
1,539 
1, 562 
1,566 
1,581 
1,589 
1,610 
1,623 
1,671 
1,680 
1,701 
1,701 
1,724 
1,744 
1,765 
1,801 
1,8.;6 



Mississippi — C ontinued . 

Port Eads, La. (mouth of the Mississip- 
pi), to — Continued. 

Cassville, "Wis 

McGregor, Iowa 

Prairie du Chien, Wis 

DeSoto, Wis 

Brownsville, Minn 

La Crosse, Wis 

Homer, Minu.. 

WinoHa, Minn 

Alma, Wis 

Lake City, Minn 

Red Wing, Minu 

Hastings, Minn 

Saint Paul, Minn 

Falls of Saint Anthony, Minn 



Missouri. 
Mouth to— 

Saint Charles, Mo 

Hamburgh, Mo 

Murdock, Mo 

Augusta, Mo 

Washington, Mo 

Bates, Mo 

Hermann, Mo 

Blufton, Mo 

Barkers ville. Mo , 

Mouth of the Osage River. 

Jefferson City, Mo 

Burlington, Mo 

Eureka, Mo 

Searcy, Mo 

Arrow Rock, Mo 

Saline City, Mo 

Glasgow, Mo 

New Frankfort, Mo 

Miami, Mo 

Lexington, Mo 

Sibley, Mo 

El Paso, Mo 

Kansas City, Mo 

Leavenworth, Kans 

Atchison, Kans 

Petersburgh 

Saint Joseph, Mo . . 

Dallas 

Forest City, Mo 

Arago, Nebr 

Brownsville, Nebr 

Nebraska City, Nebr 

Liberty 

Plattsmouth, Nebr 

Omaha, Nebr 

DeSoto 

Little Sioux River 

Dakota, Dak 

Sioux City, Iowa 

Elk Point, Diik 

Yankton, Dak 

Niobraia City, Nebr 

Fort Randall. 

Cedar Island 

Fort Thompson 

Fort Pierre 

Fort Sully 

Little Cheyenne 



Miles. 



1,855 
1,885 
1,188 
1,928 
1,956 
1,973 
2,002 
2,008 
2,0t7 
2,074 
2,089 
2,117 
2,147 
2,161 



51 

58 

65 

82 

92 

100 

125 

130 

136 

151 

156 

180 

211 

223 

234 

248 

288 

345 

380 

403 

431 

" 469 

502 

526 

549 

580 

607 

633 

661 

708 

768 

784 

806 

845 

929 

996 

1,019 

1,070 

1,161 

1,214 

1,268 

1,313 

1, 424 

1,528 

1,546 

1,610 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 
Ewer distances— Continxiedi. 



41 




Missouri — Continued. 

Mouth to- ■ 

Standing Rock 

Fort A. Lincoln 

Bismarck 

Port Clark 

Fort Bertliold 

Little Missouri Kiver 

Knife River 

White Earth River 

Big Muddy River 

Fort Buford 

Mouth of the Tellowstone River. 

Fort Kip 

Fort Lawi ence Joab 

Fort Copeland 

Fort Peck 

Harvey's Point 

Round Butte 

Muscle Shell River 

Carroll 

Grand Island 

Antoine Rapids 

Eagle Creek 

Fort Hervey 

Fort Benton, Mont 

Great Falls, Mont 



Ohio. 

Cairo (mouth of the Ohio) to— 

Paducah, Ky. (mouth of the Tennes- 
see) -- — 

Smithland, Ky. (mouth of the Cum- 
berland) 

Golconda, 111 

Weston, Ky 

Shawneetown, HI 

TJniontown, Ky 

Mount Vernon, Ind 

Vernon, Ind 

Evansville, Ind 

wenshorough, Ky 

Troy, Ind 

Rome, Ind 

Alton, Ind 

Rockhaven, Ky 

New Albany, Ind 

Louisville, Ky 

Bethlehem, Ind 

Madison, Ind 

Mouth of the Kentucky River 

Florence, Ind 

Warsaw, Ky 

Belleview, Ky 

Claysville, Ky 

Covington, Ky 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

Palestine, Ohio 

Point Pleasant, Ohio 

Augusta, Ky 

Maysville, Ky 

Rome, Ohio ■ 

Portsmouth, Ohio 

Ashland. Ky 

Huntington, Va ■ 

Galllpolis ■ 

Pomeroy, Ohio 

Syracuse, Ohio 

Bellville, Ohio 

Parkersburgh, W. Va ■ 

Marietta, Ohio 

Newport, Ohio • 

Powhattan 

Belair, Ohio • 

Wheeling, W. Va 

StubenviUe, Ohio ■ 

Liverpool, Ohio 

Rochester. Pa ■ 

Pittsburgh, Pa 



1/(66 
1,880 
1,886 
1,951 
2,030 
2,070 
2,105 
2,155 
2,225 
2,304 
2,305 
2,401 
2,456 
2,565 
2,584 
2,640 
2,701 
2,769 
2, 810 
2,889 
2,947 
3,019 
3,084 
3,092 
3,127 



50 

62 
80 
105 
125 
142 
160 
193 
200 
240 
270 
300 
322 
367 
395 
400 
431 
451 
463 
480 
481 
506 
530 
541 
541 
556 
567 
587 
609 
637 
659 
693 
700 
746 
766 
770 
808 
829 
841 
857 
906 
922 
926 
950 
970 
994 
1,021 



Red. 
Mouth to — 

Black River 

Novmand 

Cassandria 

Pineville 

Montgomery 

Campte 

Groff's Bluff 

BrownsvUla 

Caushatta 

East Point 

Shreveport, La ... 

Egypt 

Fulton 

Lanesport 

Rowland 

Shawnee Town ... 

Joneaborough 

Pine Bluff 

Slate Shoals 



Arkaneas. 
Mouth to — 

Arkansas Post 

Douglas 

Richland 

Pine Bluff 

Paw Paw 

Little Rock, Ark 

Union City 

Dardanelle, Ark 

Roseville • 

Van Buren, Ark 

Fort Smith 

Weber Falls 

Fort Gibson, Ind. Ter 
Wichita, Kans 



White. 
Mouth to — 

St. Charles ■ 

Clarendon 

Duvall's Bluff 

Augusta • 

Jacksonport 

Batesville 

Sylamore 

Buffalo City 

Dubuque 

Fovsythe, Mo 

War Eagle 

Tennessee. 

Paducah, Ky. (mouth), to— 

Newburgh 

JohnaonviUe 

Perryville (east) 

Saltillo 

Pittsburgh Landing 

Eastport, Miss 

Georgetown, Ala 

Tusciimbia, Ala 

Florence, Ala 

Muscle Shoals 

Knosville, Tenn. (about). 



Oumberland. 
Mouth to— 

Canton, Ky 

Tobacco Port, Tenn . . . 

Clarksville - - - ■ 

Nashville 

Cairo 

Rome 

Granville ■ 

(3 ainesborough 

Martinsburgh, Ky 

Roweuna 

Richmond, Ky ■ 

Waitsborough, Ky 



40 
83 
99 
139 
205 
261 
289 
296 
316 
351 
456 
529 
676 
776 
856 
901 
921 
961 



60 
90 
130 
164 
231 
278 
340 
394 
462 
526 
533 
621 
668 
884 



83 
134 

175 
283 
360 
403 
445 
509 
616 
669 
779 



61 

116 
150 
200 
230 
263 
279 
295 
300 
300 
759 



50 
71 
125 
209 
276 
339 
388 
419 
458 
559 
590 
609 



42 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TKIBUTARIES. 

River distances — Contiuiitd. 



Tellowstone. 
Mouth to— 

Diamond Island 

Ames Island 

Walker's Islaad 

Powder River 

Tongue Eiver 

Bear Island 

Big Horn River 

Pompey's Pillar 

Belle Butte, Mont 



Ouachita. 
Mouth to — 

Harrisburgh 

Paris 

Trenton 

Port Union 

Ouachita City 

Grand Mary 

Caryville 

Wilmington 

Miller's Blufif 

Camden 



Wahash. 
Mouth to— 

Chainville, Ind 

ifew Harmony, Ind.. 

Vincennes, Ind 

Terre Haute, Ind 

Newport, Ind 

Covington, Ind 

Williamsport, Ind . . . 
Lafayette, Ind 



Mouth to— 
Tuscumbia 
Linn Creek , 

Warsaw 

Osceola 

Papinville . . 



Osage. 



Minnesota. 
Mouth to — 

Patterson's Rapids . . . 



Bcev.f. 
Mouth to — 

Wallace's Landing 



Sunflower. 
Mouth to — 

Fairview 

Choctaw 

Huntonia 

Riverside 

Callao 

Eureka 

Geneva 

McLeod 

Duren 

Point Lookout 

Clarksdale 



Mouth to — 

Hardin, 111 . 
Montezuma. 
Meredosia. . 

Moscow 

Pekin 

Peoria, 111. . 
Rome, 111... 
Lacon.Ill... 
Peru, 111. .. 
La Salle, 111 



Illinois. 



58 
139 
179 
236 
276 
320 
402 
441 
474 



20 
95 
173 
193 
201 
247 
294 
307 
347 
384 



36 
56 
112 
253 
291 
319 
337 
365 



60 

110 
174 
237 
303 



295 



15 

45 

63 

70 

91 

121 

130 

157 

133 

211 

271 



25 
55 
81 

128 
186 
197 
217 
229 
268 



Tazoo. 
Mouth to — 

Little Sunflower 

Big Sunflower River. 

Tazoo City 

Silver Creek 

Rose Bank 

Greenwood, Miss 



Sartholomew. 
Mouth to — 

Baxter Station 



Miles. 



39 

54 

94 

140 

183 

228 



213 



'Black (tributary of White). 

Mouth to— 

Jefiferaon City 19 

Powhattan 100 

Davidsonville 115 

Pocahontas 140 

Mouth of Current River 150 

Doniphan, Mo. (about) 212 

Green. 
Mouth to— 

Greensburgh, Ky 200 

St. Francis. 
Mouth to — 

Jeffersonville 18^ 

Mariana 33 

Lindeu 85 

Wittsburgh, Mo 180 

Tallahatchie. 
Mouth to— 

Portwood 6 

Woodstock 21 

Eutaw 42 

Ashley 61 

Glencbe 94 

HillsPlace 175 

)7isconsin. 
Mouth to — 

Portage City 160 

Cache. 
Mouth to — 

Gray's Ferry, Ark 160 

Macon. 
Mouth to— 

Floyd, La 130 

Alleghany. 
Month to — 

Franklin, Pa 123 

Deer Greek. 
Mouth to— 

Stoneville, Miss 116 

Monongahela. 
Mouth to— 

Morgantown, W. Va 110 

Kentucky. 
Mouth to— 

Springport, Ky 19^ 

Lockport, Ky 31 

Monterey, Ky 42 

Frankfort, Ky 60 

Cogar's Landing, Ky 10& 

Kanawha. 
Mouth to- 
Great Falls, W. Va 94 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TRIBUTARIES. 43 

Eiver distatices— Continued. 



Muskingum. 
Mouth to— 

Dresden, Ohio 



Mouth to— 
Westwood 



Iowa. 
Mouth to— 

Iowa City, Iowa... 



Current. 
Mouth to— 

Jones Ferry, Missouri 

Big Hatchie. 
Mouth to — 

Bolivar, Tenu 



Rock. 



Mouth to — 

Sterling, lU 



Black (Louisiana). 
Mouth to — 

Mouth Washita, La 



Chippewa. 
Mouth to— 

Eau Claire, Wis 



Miles. 



St. Croix. 



Mouili to— 

Dalles, Wis. 



Big Rom. 
Mouth to— 

Fort Custer, Mont ... 



Clinch. 



Mouth to — 

Clinton, Teun 



Little Red. 
Mouth to— 

Searcys, Ark 



Big Cypress and Lake. 



Ked Kiver to— 
Jefferson, Tex. 



Big Black. 
Mouth to — 

Bovina, Miss 



Dauchite. 
Mouth to— 

Minden Landing, Louisiana. 



Miles. 



50 



49 



35 



44 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS NAVIGABLE TKIBUTARIES. 

LIST OF AUTHOEITIES. 
Popular Publications. 
the mississippi river. 

Adams, J. Q. — Letters during the negotiations at Ghent in 1815, respecting the nav- 
igation of the Mississippi by the British. Washington, 1822. 

Bache, F. — View of the Valley of the Mississippi. Philadelphia, 1834. 

Beltraj:*!, J. C. — Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi. London, 1828. 

BELTRA&, J. C. — Defense of his Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi. New 
York, 1825. 

CoRTHELL, E.L. — History of the Mississippi jetties. 

Ellet, C. — The Mississippi and Ohio Eivers, containing plans for the protection of 
the delta from inundation. Philadelphia, 1853. 

Ellet, C— Physical Geography of the Valley of the Mississippi. Washington, 1851. 

Ellis. — Down the Mississippi. Loudon, 1886. Cassels. 

Falconer, T. — Discovery of the Mississippi. Loudon, 1844. 

Flint, T. — History and Geology of the Mississippi Valley. Two volumes in one. 
Cincinnati, 1832. 

Flint, T.— Recollections of the Last Ten Years Passed in the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi. Boston, 1826. 

Foster, J. W.— The Mississippi Valley and its Physical Geography, including 
sketches of the topography, botany, climate, geology, and mineral resources, and of the 
progress of development in population and material wealth. Illustrated by maps 
and sections. Chicago, 1869. 

French, B. F. — Historical collection of Lousiana, five volumes. New York, 1846- 
'53. Containing La Salle's expedition, Marquette's voyage, Hennepin's narrative, 
Mimbr^'s voyage down the river, etc. 

Gayarre, Charles. — History of Louisiana under Spanish Domination. New York, 
1854: Eedfield. 

Gayarre, Charles.— History of Louisiana under French Domination, 2 vols. New 
York, 1854 : Eedfield. 

Greene, F. V. — The Mississippi. New York, 1882 : Scribner's Sons. 

Griffin, A. P. C— Discovery of the Mississippi. New York, 1883 : Barnes. 

Hart, A. M.— History of the Discovery of the Valley of the Missisisppi. Saint Louis, 
1852. 

Hennepin, L.— A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, extending above 
4,000 miles, between New France and New Mexico, with a description of the great 
lakes, cataracts, rivers, plants, and animals. London, 1698. 

HuTCHiNS, Thomas. — An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description of 
Louisiana and West Florida, comijrising the Eiver Mississippi with its principal 
branches and settlements, etc. By Thomas Hutchins, geographer to the United 
States. Philadelphia, 1784: Eobert Aitken. 

James, J. A. and U. P. — James' Eiver Guide— cities, towns, etc., on the navigable 
watersof the Mississippi Valley. Ciucinuati, 1856. 

Marbois, Barbe. — The History of Louisiana, particularly of the cession of that 
colony to the United States. Philadelphia, 1830 : Carey & Lea. 

The author was the official representative of France in the negotiations with the 
minister sent from the United States to purchase Louisiana. 

Part II, 227-316 gives an interesting account of the cession and Bonaparte's con- 
versations on that subject with his ministers. 

MONETTE, J. W.— History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Mississippi Val- 
ley, 2 vols. New York, 1846. 

Pike, Z. M. — Account of Expeditions to the Sources of Mississippi, and to those of 
the Arkansas, Kansas, La Platte, and Pierre Jaune Eivers, 1804-'07. Philadelphia, 
1810. 

Schoolcraft, H. E. — Journal of Travels from Detroit through the Great Chain of 
Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi in 1820. Albany, 1821. 

Schoolcraft, H. E.— Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper Mississippi 
to Itasca Lake in 1832. New York, 1834. 

Schoolcraft, H. E.— Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the 
Sources of the Mississippi in 1820, resumed and completed by the discovery of its 
origin in Itasca Lake in 1832. Philadelphia, 1S53. 

Shea, J. G. — Discovery and exploration of the Mississippi ; narratives of Mar- 
quette, Allouez Mimbrt§, Hennepin, and Douay. New York, 1852. 



THE MISSISSIPPI- AND ITS NAVIGABLE TKIBUTARIES. 



45 



Saha, J. G.— Early voyages on the Mississippi, by Cavelier, St. Cosme, La Suear, 
Gravier, andGuignas. Albany, 1861. 

Thiers, Adolphe.— The Mississippi Bubble. New York, 1859; W. A. Townsend 
&Co. 

MISSOURI RIVER. 

Brackenridge, H. M. — Voyage of the Mississippi in 1811. Pittsburgh, 1814. 

Gass, p.— Journal of the Corps of Discovery, under Lewis and Clarke, from the 
mouth of the Missouri to the Pacific, 1804-'06. ' Pittsburgh, 1807. 

Lewis (M.) and Clarke (W. )— History of the Expedition to the Sources of the 
Missouri, 1804-'06. Prepared for the press by P. Allen. Philadelphia, 1814. 

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 

The Senate and House documents relating to the Mississippi and its various tribu- 
taries, such as committee reports, executive documents transmitted from the War 
Department, and miscellaneous documents, are over five hundred in number. We 
have made a compilation of the same, but believing they will be of little service to 
the general public will omit them from this report. 

But the two following publications by the War Department are of general interest : 

Humphreys (A. A.) & Abbott (H. L.)— Eeport upon the Physics and Hydraulics 
of the Mississippi. Upon the protection of the alluvial region against overflow and 
upon the deepening of the mouths. Based upon surveys and investigations made 
under the acts of Congress directing the topographical survey of the Delta of the Mis- 
sissippi River, with such investigations as might lead to determine the most practic- 
able plan for securing it from inundation and the best mode of deepening the channels 
at the mouths of the river. Submitted to the Bureau of Topographical Engineers, 
War Department, 1861. Washington, 1876. 

Parke, John G.— Laws of the United States relating to Public Works for the Im- 
provement of Harbors and Rivers, from August 11, 1790, to August 14, 1876. Com- 
piled in the office of Engineers, United States Army. Washington, 1877. 

The following list of Senate and House Executive Documents, containing reports 
of Mississippi River Commission since organization in 1879, is also important : 



Senate 
number. 



Honae 
number. 



Forty-sixth Congress : 

Second session 

Third session 

Forty-seventh Congress: 

First session 

Do 

Do 

Second session 

Forty-eighth Congress : 

Second session 

Forty-ninth Congress : 

First session 

Do 

Second session 

Do 

Do 

Do 

Do 



159 

10 

10, part 2 

33 



Misc. 126 



66 



